next stop...virginia

after visiting my brother and his wife, we left on saturday morning to go to virginia and stay with my older sister.

we got stuck in some traffic. we are not fans of I-95!!!!

anyways, the kids were thrilled to finally get there and see their cousins! we got settled a bit and then all went to the park. it was FREEZING! but the everyone had a great time.





leah is such a little peach, you just NEED to take pictures of her all the time!! she has big blue eyes, and is so tiny! she is such a doll

our vacation

we decided to go and visit my brother and his wife in pennsylvania. then we thought, why don't we just keep going to virginia and see my sister? then on the way back stop at my other sister's. so...that is how our vacation began.



we packed the car (including the boys bikes) and started out thursday morning at around 10. we did hit a little bit of traffic on the way to philly, but nothing too terribly bad. we were in good moods, and had no need to rush. my brother doesn't get home from work until 10:30, so we took our time getting there.



we stopped at subway and let the boys eat outside. adam stayed in the car...he thought it looked like rain :)

the next day was FREEEEZING but my brother is a really good sport, and took us into the city anyways. bobbi had to work at 1, so she couldn't come with us. i'm sure she wasn't too upset!! haha.
we got to see the liberty bell

(portfolio babbyyy!!)

and then we went to the terminal and ate. and ate.





we had a lot of fun and i was so thankful that my brother was driving in the city...people are crazy, i tell you!!

ronnie spoiled my boys rotten, like he always does. he is so generous, and always wanting to get them whatever they want.

i have always been really close with my brother. it about broke my heart when he moved to philly 4 years ago! hopefully him and bobbi and my new niece will move a little closer some day...hint hint. (free babysitting ANYTIME bobbi!!!)

the wisdom of this world is foolishness...

i was reading in I Corinthians today. in chapter 3 it talks about the wisdom of this world. it calls it FOOLISHNESS with God! wow. that is pretty strong language, don't you think? verse 18 warns of deceiving yourself in thinking that you are wise in this age. this is what it's all about...my faith stands NOT in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. i love that i can teach that to my boys. we played a little game that i came up with the other day.

it went a little something like this.

me: riley, aj is having a hard time with a boy from awana who is being mean to him. what verse could you give him to help him?

ry: ummm...maybe think of others as better than yourself?

me: great riley!

me: now aj. ry is having a hard time going to sleep at night because he is so afraid. what verse could you give him to help him?

aj: hmmm...what time i am afraid i can trust in Thee. oh, then he can even sing it!!

me: awesome!

this went on for a while, with me giving life situations, and the boys coming up with scripture to solve it. see, to me...this is more important than any other lesson i can give them.

if riley can solve every math problem in 5 seconds, but has not gotten over his anger issues. i have failed.

if aj can rattle off every fact about the civil war, but can not control his emotions. i have failed.

the main thing i would like to teach my boys is the the Bible is ALL-SUFFICIENT. did you get that?? just in case you didn't hear it the first time, i will type louder.

the Bible is ALL-SUFFICIENT

people do not get that. even christians sometimes. they think that the Bible is good for...spiritual things. but when it comes to health, finances, marriage, parenting, depression, you name it. THOSE kind of things you need a doctor, a shrink, a super-nanny, a pill.
that's not what my Bible says. don't get me wrong. i am not against doctors or anything like that. but you get my point. the Bible is what we go to for everything - FIRST.

2 peter says "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him Who called us". that's pretty clear.

i got a little teary this morning when i saw my boys doing their devotions.


they are already...at 7 and 8-years-old, learning that everything you will ever need comes from God's Word.

ducks

riley loves ducks. loves them. i think he has at least 700 ducks...stuffed, glass, um. what else is there? ok. anyways, he has a lot of them.

my brother got him this towel for his birthday.




oh, so i guess that's what else there is. a duck towel. thanks unca!

riley likes to climb

snapshot

sometimes i get so concerned about making sure that the settings are right on my camera, and the background is perfect that i don't just take snapshots of my boys anymore. but, ya know what? this is it. my life is not a book in the making. it just...is. and i mean that in a good way. so here is a snapshot of my boys on their way to church.



we taught our boys the verse "i was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord"
me and adam decided before we even had kids, that church would be a priority for us. not an option. a priority. we were both raised that way, and we wanted to raise our family that way. it would not be...are we too tired? is the day too snowy? is the day too sunny? it is just our life. if it is sunday morning (or night) i guarantee we will be at church. period. and you know what? we love it! our boys do not see us grudgingly attending church because we have to. they see us doing it as an overflow and expression of our love and dedication to our God. it is not a ritual, or a chore. it is just what we want to do. i think that when kids watch their parents complain and argue all the way to church that is when it starts entering their minds that maybe it would be easier if they didn't go! maybe that's why they stop going all together when they are older! if we are making it our goal to please Him (2 cor. 5:9 niv) then we will want to go to church so we can grow!
alright. gotta go to bed. goodnight!

religion

first of all, i don't like the word religion because of what it represents to most people. i have a relationship with Jesus. He is my Father. He is my God and He is my Savior.
that being said, there is a verse in James that talks about religion. it says
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
i think that it is this exact verse that reminds me of my problem with "religion". see...the problem is, that people claim to have something that they don't even know the definition of! is this crazy or what. religion is not going to church or even memorizing verses and doing good deeds. it is taking care of orphans and widows, and keeping yourself from being polluted (or spotted - nasv, or stained - kjv, or corrupted - nlt) from the world. what does that mean? have you ever thought about that? how do you keep yourself from being stained from the world? i am pondering it.

some of my thoughts...and there are a lot, have to do with the first part of the verse. if you are looking after orphans, you are most likely not thinking of your own feelings and "needs" and comforts. right? ok. i am going to save all of those thoughts for another post, (consider yourself warned) but i just wanted to give you a little food for thought. think about that. think about how you are keeping yourself from being polluted.

what is your life saying that you are? not your words - your life. i don't think that anyone should ever feel like they can stop growing spiritually. we should always be moving forward. i liked this quote i found today.
"If your religion doesn't change your behavior, change your religion"

think about that.

saying goodbye

adam officially has no more family left in NH! (besides what he married into of course, and even that is dwindling!)
his little sister and her husband and girls left for iowa this week.


now our little boys have no more aunties left here!


and we have no more nieces here to spoil!


wishing we could all just be together...

super heroes

adam kept his daddy-promise to play super heroes with the boys...



even though it was well past the boys bedtime (whatever that is)...



a promise is a promise.


and that is just one more reason that i feel so blessed to have adam in my life.

i just spent too much time on this.

i am tired. i should have been reading my Bible, and instead i was trying to figure something out with some pictures i wanted to post. i even was going to post something clever. instead. you get no picture. and nothing clever. and i have to go and read then go to sleep!!

hello time change...

this is what riley thought of the time change sunday morning.

what defines a life...

last night as i sat in "the village" gym (those of you who don't get that can ask me, and i might feel a big post coming on about that one!) watching my little very big boy play his semi-final game, i was struck with such a feeling of not home. before the game i was thinking about how much i wanted aj to play his best and give it is absolute everything without becoming so consumed with it. i do not ever want my kids to think that a sport, or a thing defines them! ever. it does not. sitting in this building, with a whole lot of parents who do not have a passion about raising their kids the way i do, made me feel...alone. i know that this world is not my home. i know that we are here for such a short time. but at the same time, we have to live life! and Jesus said that he came so that we could have not only life, but ABUNDANT life! i wanted aj to have fun. but i wanted him to win.

he didn't.

i could see his face across the court with about 45 seconds to play. he knew the game was over. he was shifting from one foot to the other, and he kept rolling his eyes with the hope to try and dry his eyes. his face was getting red, and i could see him struggling to hold it together. i hurt for him. he so badly wanted to win, and i knew that he also did not want to cry. part of me wanted to just run over and hug him to death (i didn't :)) but i also wanted to prove that this game was not that big of a deal. you know what i mean. it WAS a big deal, but it is not in the grand scheme of life.

see, at the same time my little boy was trying to discipline his body like an athlete training it to do what it should, (I cor. 9:27) i was doing the same thing, but in a different way. i was resisting the very strong urge to say how i was really feeling to the lady behind me. how my stupid flesh just wanted to say...a lot. but i didn't. and you know what? i found myself thinking that i was doing right by not saying what i was thinking, but i was doing wrong by not thinking of others as better than myself. does that make sense? i was keeping my mouth shut while thinking that i was the "better person" for doing so!!
the whole point is that when i am disciplining myself to obey Christ, it involves more than just strong will. it takes humility. it is taking verses that i have hidden in my heart and applying them.

so i did. i looked over at the few moms who i feel like a 16-year-old around and i struggled to remind myself that i have to consider others better than myself. then i quickly walked out of the gym!
oh the struggles. amazing how you can even make something look "righteous" when in reality you are being "self-righteous"

but back to my boy.

he is amazing. he is humble. he is sweet. he is an extremely gifted athlete. he loves his Bible. sometimes he still calls me mommy. he still walks up to me and hugs me for no reason. he loves his family. and he already knows that basketball does not define him. he is a new creature. he is a child of The Amazing King of Kings. That is who he is. so he happens to be a really good basketball player too, but that is just one more thing.

he will be fine. there will be more wins, and more losses. and we will all continue to be given opportunities to...not be the better person. but to consider someone else a better person.

and i pray that this little boy, who knows more moves on the court than any 8-year-old i know, will continue to grow closer to Jesus every single day.
that he will never forget what truly defines him.
his relationship with Jesus Christ.
only that will last forever.
what are you letting define your life?

school days school days dear old golden rule days...

i love when the sun comes pouring in the window and splashes happiness all over everything in sight.



it makes school easier...


it makes the day smoother...


it just makes the whole day brighter!

i ♥ my man

adam turned 33 friday. i have been dating him or married to him for 17 of those years. i am one lucky girl.

let's see here...the first thing i remember of adam is from when i was in kindergarten at calvary christian school. (may it rest in peace) my memory is really bad, but the story goes that me and my mom were driving home from school in our enormous van. it was in february, becuase one of my many (i would imagine...ha) valentine cards dropped on the floor by my mom's feet. she bent down to get it, and we went off the road. as fate would have it (just kidding, i don't really mean that. it just sounded so story-like) an adorable little blond haired, blue eyed 5-year-old boy was driving home with his mom in their enormous van. being the sweet woman that she was, the mom pulled over to see if we were ok.

alright. that's where my memory ends for that part. pick up one year later. i am in first grade with some huge bangs. i am in the same class as this aforementioned adorable little blond haired, blue eyed boy. we had a math contest, and i was picked to go against...adam. the math-whiz. great. i remember putting my hands behind my back so i could try and count on my fingers as fast as i could. i beat him.

(adam questions that story to this day. i am sticking to it.)

ok. then i begin homeschooling from 2nd-8th grade. i see adam a few times here and there because my best friend reuben, is good friends with adam.

i then go back to calvary in 9th grade. my bangs may have been big in first grade, but that was nothing compared to what a few thousand sprays of salon selectives on my curling iron could do. hmmm....i may have even had the leftovers from a perm. and no, i will not be scanning in any of those pictures! i had a "boyfriend" (whose name i will not mention in print...to protect the innocent) and he broke-up with me over the phone and broke my little heart. my older sister still remembers the car ride home with me sobbing in the back. i honestly don't remember that part, but i do believe her.

i then started "dating" a senior whose parting words to me the last summer i saw him were "promise me you won't date adam chase." i really have no idea why he said that. apparently he knew something i didn't. anyways, we are at my sophomore year here. and my hair is still pretty big. i'm pretty sure i was wearing hi-top sneakers with velcro and had mastered the french cuff. i remember seeing adam's mom one day after school and she said

"my son adam is pretty cute". gotta love her. you are always gonna know what's on her mind. i honestly love that about her.

now we are at january 24th. me and adam had started to...like each other (whatever that means to a teenager) and he had invited me over to his house for dinner after church. his dad picked me up in their wicked nice silver car (aka the silver bullet, i believe?) and i still remember that i was wearing a red plaid skirt. pretty sure it was pleated, and i probably had navy socks to match my navy shirt on top of a pair of red socks to match the skirt with sneakers. ok, i am not positive about the last part, but i really do remember the skirt!

first thing i remember his dad saying to me was "wow. that is really bright nail polish" i think i hid my fingers the rest of the day.

then adam "asked me out". someone please explain where that terminology originated! and the rest is history.

i was a coughcheerleadercough and adam was the basketball and soccer star.

we went to college together at the world's most exciting university. he played soccer and i did NOT make the softball team...2 years in a row.



fast forward. we got married, had 2 beautiful boys and are living happily ever after.

he doesn't like birthday cake. every year i have to try and be creative. we've done jello and huge cookies, but this year i got a bunch of candy and stacked them up.



then he made a wish...


then he blew out his candles...


i know that adam's parents prayed for a wife for adam. i feel so blessed that i was the one that God chose to answer their prayers.
i loved my man when i was 16 and barely even knew what love was.
i love my man now even more than i did then.

the end. ♥

aj's poem

we learned about John Greenleaf Whittier this year in history. aj's assignment for additional work was to write a poem.

here is aj's poem from today.


Our power was gone for days
The house seemed like a maze

We couldn't see a thing
The candles we had to bring

I had to bring in some wood
The fire felt really good

We finally got power back
Now no more seeing black

i thought he did pretty good!

Jesus is Coming Soon...

i know that most of us are aware of this fact. i mean, i have been aware of it ever since i was little. but today, when i was reading the headlines of the news, i got the chills...bad.

i thought of this verse
Luke 21:11
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven

and this verse
Mark 13:8Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

and this verse
Matthew 24:7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

what it makes me want to do is this.
*stop feeling sorry for myself for small things that i don't have
*stop getting mad at other people who are hurting my feelings (christians and non)
*start shining my light a LOT brighter
*start praying HARDER for the salvation of those around me
*MAKE IT MY GOAL TO PLEASE JESUS!

this is my challange to you: Jesus is coming soon. are YOU ready?

i still have the chills.

still no power...

i'm not complaining. i am just saying that life is different with no power! we lost it thursday night and we are still hoping that it will come back SOON!!! oh how grateful i will be when i can just turn on the faucet!!

The Porch

For those of you who do not get my email update for the youth center that adam and i started, i thought i would post one. the more prayer the BETTER!! :) also...if anyone is interested in getting our email updates, email me and i will add you to our list. ajnrileysmommy@hotmail.com. thanks!

Keeping You Up to Date...

I am writing with many different emotions on my heart right now! I had started this email last week, and was so excited to be reporting all the great things that have happened since I last updated you! I wanted to share some amazing things that have taken place in these past few weeks. I will start there, before sharing some other news.
Just a few weeks ago, we decided to get cable and internet. Getting internet was really in faith, because we did not have any computers. However, we felt that since that was what we wanted for the future, we would just do it. We had the super bowl party and it was a HUGE success! We had 29 teenagers come in, and many of them had never been in before that night. We had great opportunities to talk to teens as well as meet some parents! We ordered pizza and a lot of people from church donated tons of snacks and drinks, which was another huge blessing. It will never get old to me to see the love and support of our church family. The following week was very encouraging as well, as we had a lot of kids come in after school each day. I will probably say this a lot, but one thing that always touches me is when kids read the Bible verses on the wall out loud. I just love it! We have John 10:10 on the first wall when you walk in, and Jeremiah 29:11 on the main wall in the game room. I have heard that a few times in the past couple of weeks, and I am always reminded that God's Word will NEVER return void!

Last week Adam was leaving to go to The Porch and asked me to pray for the finances. Our account was lower than it had ever been. When he came home he handed me something - it was a check from a very dear friend of mine from college. She had decided to tithe her tax return to our ministry. WOW! This was so unexpected and we were reminded again of God's complete control. On another financial note -Several months ago, Adam had the opportunity to share our vision with the Rotary Club from Raymond. He shared how we wanted to expand and have computers and printers available for the kids that came in. We never heard from them again, and figured that they had decided against helping us out. We were wrong. We received an email saying that they had decided to give us a grant to purchase 5 laptops and 2 printers! Can you even believe how huge our God is? Not that we need proof, but He amazes us over and over.

Although we know that God is in complete control, I have news that is heartbreaking. I just got word today that an 8th grade girl from Epping named Megan was in a car accident on Saturday. She passed away this morning. While this really is devastating, let me back up a little bit. When we opened the center in July, this young lady actually came in to The Porch. She was friends with a great christian girl, Cayla, who goes to our church. Cayla told me that Megan had questions about the Bible. I got a Bible, we sat out in the hallway and I shared the Gospel with her. I sensed that she wasn't comfortable to be completely open with me, so I left her and Cayla alone. Ten minutes later, Cayla came in and announced that Megan had prayed to receive Christ! What a gift that God gave us! We will be able to comfort her friends that they don't have to grieve as those who have no hope! We can assure her family with great confidence, based on the authority of the Word of God, that Megan is with Jesus in heaven right now! Please pray for Megan's family. Please pray for us, that we will be able to minister to her family and be a place that teens can come looking for help with their grief!

I recently heard this quote from Arthur Blessitt. "Let your vision be no greater than the next person you meet." Aren't you thankful that Cayla felt that way? I know I am!
My prayer for all of us this week is that we will allow that to be our vision! No matter where we are in life right now, God can use us in the lives of the people we come in contact with. Jesus commands us in John 15 to LOVE one another. Let's do that. You never know whose life could be changed for all eternity if we let the love of God be demonstrated through us.

Serving Jesus with Joy,
Adam, Rachelle, Glen and Maria

i ♥ boston

friday nights are 1.00 admission night at the boston children's museum. how can you beat that? so me and adam decided to take the boys. we always park and take the T in...way easier. and i decided to look like a tourist because i love having pictures of adam and the boys.

we went to faneuil hall for dinner. the boys (including adam) always like to get the same thing there, so we had to start out with clam chowder in a bread bowl for 3 of us, and chicken and fries for ry.


then we walked the "3 blocks" to the museum that the website advertised. um. ya. it was more like 8 blocks, but that's ok. i love walking around, and we were all in good moods. it was a little bit chilly, but it didn't feel that bad. and just so you know, when we win 20 millions dollars, i am buying a condo in the city just for fun. oh, and just so you also know, we don't buy lottery tickets. so it will really be quite the story when it happens! :)

when we got there, there was a HUGE line to get in and i could not believe how many people were there! but hey...4.00, remember?

it is 3 stories, and there really is a lot to do there.




don't worry, my fellow home-school mothers, i made sure that i got some good material for the portfolio :)


they have this CRAZY climbing thing that aj was so excited to do. it looks like madness, especially with the million kids in it, but he did great.


if you look really close, you can see his head at the very top of the picture!


the boys had a really great time, and if you just keep telling yourself over and over and over again that the germs aren't there, YOU can have a great time too!! :) they did have a lot of hand sanitizing stations, so that made me feel a little better!






at the end of the day, times like this remind me of how thankful i am. thankful to have a husband that loves me so much, and loves our boys so much. i'm thankful that we have sweet, obedient little boys who make it fun and easy to be out together. i am thankful that God is blessing our family. i feel happy. content. oh, and tired!

good night. :)