my house smells like feet

The other night, Scott and I came home from a date and our niece Katherine who was babysitting had just put
the children to bed.
The house smelled weird like old cheese and vinegar.
I looked at Katherine.
"What is that smell?"
"I don't know."
I think that her nostrils were seared by the scent and
she was unable to locate the smell.
I started walking around the room, sniffing the air like a
blood hound.
I ended up by the end table near the couch.
Lookind down, I saw one of my son's pair of shoes.
I picked them up and as I brought the close to my face,
I was hurled back on the couch by
the sheer power of their odor.
I think I may have been caught up in a victorian swoon.
"Sweet mercy, that is awful...Katherine...smell this!"
She obliged and her nostrils sprung back to life.
"Ohhhhhh, noooooo!"
(Why do we make other people smell terrible things when
we know they are hideous?)
I dumped them in the shoe basket in the living room hoping
to contain the smell.
Scott walked by the shoe basket a few minutes later.
"Did something die in here? What is that smell?"
It was at the moment the shoes were consigned to the out of
doors and were banished, henceforth,  from the house.
They soon met their demise. So long, shoes. Don't come back. Ever.
I continued my investigative skills the next morning.
I had each child bring me their shoes to smell.
Each smelled more wretched than the next.
They are apparently breeding ground for bacteria and funk.
Finally I yelled out, "Who is not wearing socks?"
They were all guilty.
Apparently they think I buy them socks to use as hand puppets
not as a protective layering to wear on their feet.
It became apparent we could not undo the stench that had been
wrought in their shoes.
New shoes were in order. So now every child has a brand new pair
of unfunkified shoes. And I have become the sock enforcer.
I peer into the children's eyes at the breakfast table.
"Do you have socks on? Show me!"
So the cleansing of the air in my house has begun.
And I have purchased a new plug in room freshener to aid in
the air control.
Hopefully, we are a new path of sock wearing and foot deoderizing.
One can only hope.

and the winner of the bonbon charms giveaway is...

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Result:12
Commenter #12, Stacie Mockbee!
You can e-mail Erica at erica@bonboncharms to get your charm.
Super fun! Thanks everyone, for celebrating
Bonbon Charms debut in Debbie Macomber's book!

don't mess with the 5 year old

Every night Scott  and I put the boys to bed, say a prayer over them
and turn out the lights in their room.
We think they should immediately go to sleep...this rarely happens.
Of all the boys, our 8 year old Will, has the toughest time settling down.
He wants to get up for water, give more kisses, sneak papers and pencil
under the covers so he can draw or torment his brother, Addison, who shares his room.
Usually, Addison, the 5 year old, is up for playing along and tormenting Will back.
However, the other night when Will was supposed to be going to sleep
he decided to serenade Addison with a made up song.
After a few minutes, Addison said, "I don't like that song, Will."
Will just added a few more verses and sang louder.
Finally, Addie said loudly, "What part of 'I don't like that song' don't you understand?"
I'm not sure when my kindergartener turned into a mob boss but one thing is clear,
Will better learn how to fall asleep quicker or he may be sleeping with the fishes soon.
Those would be goldfish crackers, in Addie's case.

bonbon-charm- is-famous giveaway

Many of you know that my sister, Erica Clements, is a jewelry designer.

Bonbon Charms is her online store and she makes the coolest stuff.

I am not biased. I promise.

Recently, one of her customers told her she had found out about  

Bonbon Charms reading one of Debbie Macomber's books.

Debbie Macomber is a famous author.

Debbie received a Bonbon bracelet from a friend,

each charm on the bracelet was a 

different word that meant something special to her.

And Debbie mentioned this in her new inspirational book,

One Perfect Word: One Word Can Make All the Difference.

How totally cool is that?

So in celebration of Bonbon being in a book for the first time,

we are having a giveaway.

A oh so cute tag charm from Bonbon.

Leave your name and email in the comments 

on this post or on the All I Need is Jesus FB page

for a chance to win.

Link to the giveaway on your blog or facebook 

and mention it in your comment for a second entry.

Winner will be chosen at random and announced one 

week from today on Thursday February 9. 

For those of you who can't wait that long and you

feel that you need a Bonbon to wear right now,

get 20% off your orders at Bonbon Charms for the

next week using the discount code TSG.

This is getting fun!

hello lovely friday

Friday is my favorite day of the week.

Friday is a let your hair down kind of day.

You've done all you can do for the week and

all you have in front of you is the anticipation of the weekend.

Sleeping in. Curling up with a book. Sipping a cup of tea.

Going for a walk. Playing a game with the kids.

Time with friends. Church. The weekend.

Can I get an amen?

I thought I'd let you in on a few of my other favorites.

So hear goes:

Favorite Cookie: Flourless Peanut Butter

 (please feel free to add chocolate chips....I do....)

Favorite New Album: Colby Caillat

 (The song "I do" is my favorite song)

Favorite New Video: Kari Jobe We Are

Favorite New Author:  Tasha Alexander

Favorite quote of the Day:

If you don't like how things are, change it! You are not a tree.

Jim Rohn

Favorite Verse:

But those who wait upon GOD get fresh strength.

They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind.

Isaiah 40:31

It's Friday, friends.....let's do a little soaring.

the long dream

I have been thinking a lot about chasing dreams lately.
About how our hopes for better things get us moving
and how our longing for being more
than we are gets us to overcome our fears.
Scott and I started chasing the dream of planting a church
on the San Francisco peninsula 7 years ago next week.
We had grand plans. We rented a 900 seat theater.
There were 11 of  us on our team.
4 of which were children aged 3 and under.
Everyone counts.... don't let anyone tell you different.
We had visions of filling the theater.
Than our vision changed to finding a place that fit our size.
We moved three times and ended up back in our house
for a year and half.
This wasn't necessarily the dream we dreamed for ourselves.
There were Sundays where once the worship team got up,
we were singing to empty seats. And Jesus, of course.
We hope He liked it. We felt kind of weird.
We have had Sundays where we have felt like the the power of the Lord
was going to blow the roof off...momentum was building.
And there have been Sundays where we have had more kids than adults.
(Which I think is kind of cool for our kids church...
but a bit unspiring for Scott as he stands up to speak.....)
In the past 7 years, I had my 3rd child,
 battled some heinous post partum,
had some much needed therapy with 2 different counselors,
wrote 3 books, worked 3 different jobs, and have had to commit
fully to coloring my hair...gray is not a part of the dream.
Scott has had to live with me (bless him!)
all the while working a full time teaching job
along with trying to grow a fledgling church, raising financial support,
discipling a guys group, counseling with people,
prepping his sermons on Saturdays all without a gall bladder.
Gall bladder surgery happened around year 4.
I think Scott misses it a little bit.
We really had no idea what chasing this dream would look like.
About 1 1/2 year ago, I told Scott, "I'm in."
And he said, "For what?"
"For planting a church."
He said, "Nice to know you are finally on board."
Some of us take a little more time than others to embrace the dream.
But we have checked our hearts and our prayers lately
and the dream has not changed.
The dream of telling people about Jesus and of seeing lives transformed.
The dream of teaching kids about God's love and seeing broken people healed.
It says in Psalms 37:34,
Don't be impatient for the LORD to act!
Travel steadily along his path. He will honor you, giving you the land.
You will see the wicked destroyed.
I am almost always impatient for the Lord to act.
Okay,....always.
But sometimes I think God puts a long dream in front of us.
A dream where we have to keep following steadily along his path
hanging tight to the hopes He has given us
even when He has only shown us small glimpses of the promised land.
Like Joseph whose path to power led him through
a prolonged prison sentence.
Or Sarah who waited 26 years before God gave her the son
He promised her.
Those are long dreams.
So this next week are celebrating 7 years with our church.
Celebrating who we have been, who we are right now and who we will
become as we keep chasing after what God has called us to.
We are going to have pizza and maybe some chocolate cake.
And then we are going to keep right on dreaming.
Because the good part is coming.
You can count on it.

and so they met their demise

I discovered this grisly scene this morning when I was picking up the living room.
Addison likes to wage wars between his Batman action figure and his many nemeses.
But apparently something else got to Penguin, Joker and the Riddler before Batman could.
Take a quick look at their surroundings...the undershelf of our couch side table.
Note the unbelievable amount of particulate that has collected therein.
(Note to self: dust the couch side table sometime this year.)
There is no question what downed these evil doers.
It is all too evident.

It was death by dust bunnies