Brave is 22

Costume Party Picnic

Random Stuff

The boys/Music Video Shoot

Brave/on the road.  He's in Canada right now.

Lately...every time I turn around...Jemima's got the camera in her hand.  Maybe she's gotten the bug too?????  I guess time will tell.

Zion's decided that she doesn't really mind if the world knows she still likes playing with dolls after all...so we pulled them out during a recent play date.  Her friends loved them and got super involved with dressing them...doing their hair...etc.  One thing led to another and Zion had a brilliant idea. Why not turn our disassembled bunk bed into a stage?!!!!!

She recruited Brad...who took some measurements and ran up the street to the Hardware store to buy a piece of plywood.   Now we have the skeleton of a runway.  Why do we need a runway you are wondering?

Cuz Zion and her friends are planning to put on a Toddlers & Tiaras Doll Beauty Pageant!!!!!!!
Photos to come.

And when we moved to LA...Zion had a dream of building a tree house.  Not many trees in AZ :)
We're renting the Cottage...so thoughts of having a tree house of our very own have been put on the backburner.  But the desire to have a space...a club...a special spot...never faded.

What to do?  What to do?  What TO DO?!!!?????????!!

It's the perfect spot to hang out...read...play backgammon...give manicures...play 500 Rummy.

Things might not always work out the way we imagined...but the Lord always does work them out. 

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11


"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8

In Christ Alone

Sometimes...out of the corner of my eye... I catch Jemima signing during the worship set at church.  I knew of her decision to learn some songs all the way through....but I had no idea she is as far along in her ASL studies as she is.

Tonight she blew us away.

While we've been busy with life... our daughter has actually become quite fluent.

Russian Repair Man

What to do when the Russian Repair Man quotes you $235 to fix your fridge problem and your washing machine problem?

Haggle him all the way down to $150 and count it all joy.

Juke Box & Bones

The Summer Set dropped their latest video.

Produced by Dead Rabbit...aka our boys :)

What I love most about Brave and Mcabe hanging out with all these super cute...super talented...super fun friends is that they get to hang out with all these super cute super talented super fun friends.

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And Mcabe heading out for a Bones callback.  He went in for a fisherman a few weeks ago...but he was too young for the role. 

This guy is a highschool drug dealer whose into the punk scene.

This Week

Zion is the sweetest thing on earth as she struggles greatly with the realization that we are actually really living in L.A.

Not visiting L.A. but living here.   As in long term.  As in no end in sight.

She is literally heartsick for "home."  Painfully heartsick.

She does not want to let go...cuz in her mind she is leaving her childhood behind.
All the comforts of what was for an uncertain future w/ so many changes ahead.

I have had the great honor of helping her through this trial.  Lots of tears have been shed this week. Lots of cuddles.

Lots and lots of salty tears and kisses.

We do not know what the future holds but we do know who holds the future.

Photo Credit: Jemima


Woodley Park Archery

The staff is so incredibly friendly...like seriously joyful & passionate.  You can not only tell ...how much they love archery...but how much they want to pass the love of archery on to others.

There is nothing like unpaid volunteers serving the community.  Heart and soul.

It was so neat to bump into this familiar guy...who I knew I knew from somewhere...but couldn't place for the life of me.  I asked the instructor if they have a Home-School set up...lessons etc...when this guy overhears me. We strike up a conversation...and lo & behold...it winds up he and his wife were at the same FREE HOMESCHOOL BOWLING thingie w/ their kids that we just went to last week...two years ago.   We had talked briefly then...and now bumped into each other again at an Archery class.  Not only are they believers but they are New Yorkers & Jews!

It's cool when you know that there are no accidents and that the Lord has a purpose for every encounter.  And when that's the mindset of the people you bump into it's very cool.

We exchanged info.

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The boys have been busy w/ Dead Rabbit work.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...one of the best things we've ever done is put cameras and editing bays into their hands at early ages.

Braverijah flew out last night.  He's due back just before Thanksgiving.

Fridays at Home

Don't think you can homeschool?

YES you can.  Of course you can!

Our Fridays are laid back.  Most of our days are...but Fridays are especially laid back.

Whatever lessons need to be done before the week-end are on the agenda.

&

There's Piano for Jemima.

How brilliant is this????!!!!!!!$&*%%!!!!  While David, a homeschool graduate is in the back teaching  our middle girl how to tickle the ivories...


...his mother is in the front room teaching a Spanish class to our eldest and youngest girls and Lizzy...our home-schooled friend.  Such a better use of time than her just sitting there waiting.  It couldn't be more perfect.  Spanish is her native language and she's a Spanish teacher for a private school.

Actually....today was the first day for SPANISH.  And it went really well!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!!!!!

I sat on the couch...listening in...while finishing up a little project.

Each Gregg kid is getting a crocheted blanket.  TaDa......Zion's is finished.

  After Piano & Spanish...the girls have Dance from 4-7.  Ballet/Tap/Jazz/Spanish.

That's it.

Our Fridays.

And you wanna know why the fed gvt. (as a system)  dislikes us homeschooling types?  

It's cuz we don't need them.

Sweet Sixteen

Love at first sight.

 

....and this one is awesome!

Birthday boys & girls get signs in our home.  It's a tradition.

I cannot imagine life without my Jemima Bakytgul.  I am especially burdened for her birth parents tonight...and ever so grateful that her birthmother chose life.  What a gift we have been given.  

Being Home

One good thing about Bradley being home w/ us during the days...is that he's home with us during the days.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

The Mindy Project

Someone just tweeted Mcabe asking if his episode aired tonight.

We missed it.

Enlisted

Mcabe and his Enlisted brothers.

I didn't step foot on the set so I have no idea what to expect.  Well, that's not 100% true.  I ran lines w/ Mcabe here at home so I have an idea of the story line and what his character is like etc....but it's going to be so much FUN to watch the episode when it airs.

3 gingers who give the town sheriff a run for his money.  YES!!!!!!!!!  Atta boy.

One of Those Weeks

Ever have one of those weeks?

The exhausting sort.  When only the steadfast, unwavering, firm love of the Lord sees you through.

The kind of week where it is very apparent that human efforts can offer no real solutions...temporary or lasting.

Yeah.

That was our week.

Started with one child...full on overt rebellion....

...then moved to another...full on conviction & repentance...

....then another...quiet conviction & repentance spurred on by the transparency of the overt sibling.

The boys were a great help.  And a great comfort during what can only be described as a move of the Holy Spirit like we've never experienced as a family unit.  

We have now walked through three children being brought face to face with the validity of their own faith claims.  I've probably blogged about it before...but I have no idea where to find the posts w/out effort and I am so not into putting forth any effort at this moment.

Some of you might know that I sometimes react physically to emotional/stressful/anxious/spiritual skirmishes.  I fight like all heck...then I tend to crash.  When in the safe zone...my body tends to poop out.  

Braverijah came to us in his early teens and told us that his knowledge of the Lord had been a head one (demonstrated initially by raising his hand during a VBS alter call :)   And then...years later...just like that...supernaturally...it moved to his heart....changing his professed yet non saving faith into a saving one.   He wanted to be baptized and was.  

Mcabe was young...maybe 9-10?????  When he cried and cried on my lap...afraid that he was not actually saved at all due to a pattern of sinful reactions towards another.  He had raised his hand and said "the prayer" at the tender age of 3...during an evangelistic puppet show alter call :)  Years later......on the couch...we brought his sinful reactions and other things to the Lord together...acknowledging his resentment/wounds/anger/fear etc. and turning it all over to the Lord's sovereign care .  He was able to find rest where there was once restlessness.  He knew for sure that he was adopted into God's Kingdom.

Precious Zion has had a similar experience this week.  Coming to us in tears...absolutely distraught over the possibility that her faith has not actually been a saving one.  She had a whole laundry list of reasons why she has been questioning her standing in the Lord's family.  I cannot tell you how precious it is to attempt to help soothe a contrite heart.  I am weepy just thinking about it.  She was under such deep conviction about every single little thing.   

The Holy Spirit truly is our helper.

And the enemy is our accuser.  And the father of lies.  And the one who plants seeds of doubt.   He attempts to get us off track.  He attempts to stifle us and to paralyze us. 

How to know the difference between the non believer who is being convicted that they are a white washed tomb and the believer who is being condemned, bullied,  and harassed????????

Bradley and I met a young man at a church we were visiting last week.  We had just finished speaking on a Sunday School classroom panel and something we said touched him...spoke to him.  He was so stinking transparent and authentic in his asking our thoughts on how to know absolutely that you are truly saved or not...being sure...struggling with the doubts etc.  It took all my might not to hug all over him.  What guy in his 20's approaches a random couple and asks about such things???????  We talked about the fact that his even pondering such things is a good indication of the Lord's presence and working in his life.  How those who care about such things...only care about them because the Lord first nudges them to.   Zion was right there by our side...and I am sure she over heard our conversation.  God is so good in that way.  Using every moment in time to get us to the next moment in time.  Nothing is wasted.

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Three believers have come to us in the last week...processing through deep times of anxiety and depression...both things Bradley and I have dealt with.

I am sensing a spiritual battle like none I've ever known.  A heaviness hangs over so many in our circle.  

Here's what I know.

Salvation is of the Lord.  It cannot be lost.  Growth is of the Lord.

Repentance is of the Lord.

We are to submit.  We are to obey.

We are to walk in the light as he is in the light. 

 

1 Thessalonians 4:11

Re-decorating our little cottage :)

Brad and I stopped at a Thrift Shop this week-end because I was looking for plastic hangers...and this one spot I visit usually has them for $0.05/per.

Well, they didn't have any hangers this time....but they did have this wonderful basket which I am so in love with and loads of embroidery thread for SALE.

I was seriously on my way to Michael's to buy embroidery thread  because I needed new colors for my TWIG CROSSES.  We've started CHRISTmas crafting over here :)

And our avocado pits have roots and are ready to plant.

"...and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you..."  1 Thessalonians 4:11

Pirate Day