Mourning....or noon

Well, I have to start off with the news that our dear lizard didnt make it long in this house. Seems they were more interested in holding it and then letting it go in order to turn the lizard habitat into an unripe peach habitat since thats exactly what I found in his jar. I checked. The lizard was NOT underneath the unripe peach so I believe him to be safe.

On another note, I overheard Ava say as she steps out of the house:

"WOW! WOW! WOW! Look! It's a NOON dove! Mommy, a NOON dove, a NOON dove!"

Too cute.

Lizard Wednesdays

While we cannot compete with the creatures our dear cousins in middle-of-nowhere-California find on a daily basis, we do have our large share of lizards. The kids found a young lizard today and after some very quick googling we are certain its this guy, a western fence lizard. So the girls are busy building him a habitat and drawing decorations for his jar. They decided some portraits of lizards and some carpet would be nice so they promptly glued them to the sides and bottom of his jar. Welcome to our house, little guy!

Spiritual Stepping Stones

This came with a toy we gave Jillian for her birthday. I thought it was too good not to share. Sometimes as parents we wonder how much and in what way we can share Christ with them. Click on Spiritual Stepping Stones once there. Enjoy!

http://one2believe.com/freeresources.asp

The Middle Class Insurance Conundrum

I'm going to share some personal financials with y'all but I do it with a purpose. This is an election year and I encourage everyone to consider something that affects each of us, especially those of us with families: medical insurance costs.

You all know us, healthy young couple with three kids. We have a standard PPO (preferred provider option) plan with a major insurer. Jon's employer covered his costs but we paid out of pocket monthly for four dependents $190.14. This is for a plan with a deductible of $500 per individual or a family deductible of $1500. Each office visit had a co-pay of $20 and we paid 20% out of pocket for a preferred provider and 70% out of pocket for a non-preferred provider.

To give you an idea of what we paid out each year, this year in AUGUST, we have met our family deductible of $1500. We have paid out co-pays of approximately $60 per month ($480) and currently have an outstanding invoice equaling $1005.00 for some cardiology work-ups for Jillian and Eli. We pay an additional approximate $50 per month in misc. costs from the 20% we owe at each visit.

Using these numbers our out of pocket expenses for this year will be somewhere around $5101.00!

And that doesn't include births. I paid around $2000 out of pocket to the hospital and $500 for my OB care and an additonal $500 for anesthesia.

Jon has started a new job and we have a lapse in care for 30 days. COBRA notified me that the per month cost for our family of five will be $1100.00.

This is absolutely ridiculous. And we have "good" plan with "affordable" rates. There are millions of uninsured people in our country and inability to afford a quality plan is one of the top reasons. We make a decent income. I cannot imagine paying $5000 per year on an income our government would deem middle class.

Please consider the financial strain this places on low and middle class income families as you look at the upcoming elections. Listen to the options being presented by the presidential candidates and consider what it means not only for your family but families across America. We are fortunate that while this is an expense that is no fun to pay it does not place financial stress or uncertainty on us. Insurance costs however continue to spiral out of control while insurance companies make it harder and harder for people to qualify. At minimum, families shouldn't face inadequate or no coverage for their children. Medical care should be something affordable and available to the American public and a priority of all elected officials, regardless of political affiliation.

Family

We went to Oregon in June for my grandpa's memorial service. I have so many pictures to post but wanted to share this picture of my extended family all together. My Dad has six brothers and sisters and we all gathered together to celebrate my Grandpa's life. Its rare for us to all be together which makes this picture even more special. Enjoy and I'll post more Oregon memories in the next week.

Happy Birthday, Jillian Rose!

Jillian, my dear, today you are three! For the last six months you have been telling everyone you were "two and a half" even up through yesterday. Now your birthday is finally here! When you arrived you blessed our family. You were our biggest baby and turned out to have the biggest, sweetest personality as well. You bring laughter to our lives and smiles to our faces. You love to love. You love to dance. You love to sing. You are caring toward others, sensitive and thoughtful. You make us laugh with the way you see life and you definitely fill your name as Jillian means 'youthful' and I believe you will always have a youthful, joyful perspective on life. We love you, Jilly Rose!

Love.

"I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth...But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing another commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. " 2 John 4 NSRV

Wow. So, I read a lot of blogs. I love keeping up on them, especially the ones about family and mothering. But its rare to see a mom post about the times when she's going crazy, ready to call it quits (whatever that looks like when you run the house). Well, I've had that kind of a week. I've broken down a lot this week in tears or anger. The kids are challenging and demanding. I'm feeling at a loss for how to discipline them or mold their little personalities into something beautiful. I've prayed and prayed that God would show me how to handle these challenges and how to handle my children.

Last night I cried out that God would reveal to me how to respond to Ava and Jillian, how to fix this mess. I opened my calendar today and saw this verse and I knew that God had been faithful once again in answering me. Of course this was not what I was expecting and immediately I felt that this was God correcting me, not encouraging me! See, the kiddos love God. I spend a lot of time talking about God, singing praises, praying, reading and I often pride myself on being an example to them in these things. What I felt God tell me I was missing was Love. I'm not loving them enough. Not encouraging them enough. My days are spent yelling and correcting far more than loving and offering grace. Wow. Let us love one another. How simple but how difficult. Loving my girls when they are completely unlovable is challenging but its what I know God is asking me to do. Thank you, Lord for reminding me what matters most. Thank you for your faithfulness in answering my prayer.

Now, I'm off to love.