The Chuppies

Taking a Break & Moving & Happy 4th of July

Just a quick note...

I'm going to take a writing break for a week or so.

We're heading to Bend, Oregon for the 4th of July...like we did last year.

Did you see the photo of the flying dog in the Fourth of July Pet Parade?

How could we pass up the chance to see that again?

Actually,

We're heading over for a family reunion to celebrate--

My Gramma's 80th Birthday...

My Pop's 85th Birthday...

And their anniversary as well!

We have a great house sitter staying over to watch the stickbugs, Madagascar Hissers, chickens, dog, and guinea pigs.
Central Oregon is an incredible place (just in case you're considering a visit) and Richardson's Rock Ranch is a "must" if you're in the area. Floating down the Deschutes is also something you'll want to make time for!

We're also in the process of moving our blog location...over to a Wordpress-self-hosted-domain-spot.

Not that I really know what that means. I'm clearly having (and needing) some help in the process. So...

If you'd like to stay in touch, it'd be great if you could subscribe by email or RSS feed (they should transfer with us).

We'll probably lose all other subscribers and we don't want that to happen...

We would miss you!!!

Please be patient with me in the process.

I don't do well with computers...

Or change in general.

I'm hoping that in making this switch we can (Lord willing) settle in at our new address for the long haul.
And we'll have lots of GREAT give-a-ways from some special friends when we host our--
HOUSE WARMING PARTY in a few weeks!!!

But--

Before we take off...

Just wanted to take a moment to wish you a wonderful, relaxing, thanks-filled, God-honoring, FUN--

Happy 4th of July !!!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

So this one might turn out a little strange...

But yes...

I'm inviting you to be my neighbor.
Because there are three (maybe four) houses that are going on the market (or that are already for sale) on our loop.

And a neighbor-friend and I were talking about how incredible it would be to fill our area with families who love the Lord and who also have a heart to reach out to the neighborhood.

Each summer morning, I get at least one call from a neighbor kiddo who wants to come and play.
The raised garage door is the sign that we're "open for business".
And the garage transformation was intentional.
Last week, it was filled with children pretty much every. single. day.
And there may be a day when God tells us to go,
But for now, it's all about
Learning to live for Him in the--
Stay.

For right now,
This is where God has us.
On this street.
With these people...
Whose lives are filled with--
Marriage and divorce and love and anger and...
Children and joy and pain and doors-that-shut-when-cars-pull-in and...
Wealth and loss and struggle and sprinklers and cats-that-roam and...
Success and defeat and gardens and girl scout cookies and soccer games and...
Death and tears and dogs-that-bark and garage sales and...
Kids-with-keys-to-empty-houses and disease and motorcycles and...
Fun and rent-to-pay and running shoes and doorbells and new babies and...
Hanging plants and slamming doors and new gutters and plates of cookies...
And people who need Him.

And so really...
It's bigger than just wanting some nice neighbors.
It's about being willing to pray-- anything.
To be wise and intentional,
But also to be willing to take those crazy steps of faith...
When God nudges.
To actually stop and consider...
Where can He most use us?
What natural connections and relationships is He building in our lives?
Why has He placed us in this current spot or stage or season or scenario?
How might He be asking us to make changes or take steps of faith to be even more used by Him?
Because...whatever we do, let it all be to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

To be willing to go--
Or stay.

And to--
Wherever you are...

Wherever we are--
Be a light shining in the darkness,
So that others may see our good deeds...and glorify our Father who is in Heaven (Matt 5:16).
And maybe,
Just maybe...
He'll put it on your heart to join us?
In this place where we're trying to erase the false lines that divide the secular and sacred...
In this messy spot where
I promise to try my best to be a good neighbor...

“It is not what a man does

that determines whether his work is sacred or secular;

it is why he does it.”

~A. W. Tozer

If you enjoyed visiting with

The Chuppies...

Please consider connecting with us

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Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing with thanks over at: Jenni Mullinix

Denise in Bloom, Far Above Rubies, Tesha's Treasures, Growing Home,

The Better Mom , Raising Arrows, Titus2sdays, A Holy Experience

Raising Homemakers,Women Living Well, We are THAT Family.

Just For Fun...Christmas in July

It's July 1st.

And so clearly that's a good time for a post about Christmas.

(My husband and I did actually hear a commerical for

"the holiday season" just this past week).

Are you kidding me?

But I was cleaning up our computer today,

and ran across this video from last Christmas.

It's such a window into my side of the family,

where "directions" are sometimes viewed as "suggestions".

(smile)

And the last couple of posts have been a bit serious-heavy,

so just for fun...

let me share with you--

"Christmas Ants Gone Wild"

(I shared this back in December,

but had to take it down as we were contacted by

Funniest Home Videos because they were

wanting to possibly use it.

We filled out all the paperwork,

but haven't heard back...

If we do, I'll probably have to remove this one too.)

Let me preface this by saying in my defense...

while I didn't follow the directions on the box,

my brother--who gave our kiddos the ants--didn't either.

He didn't order the ants that came with the kit,

but instead ordered two packages of

some sort of stinging harvester ants

from a science research company.

And they did sting!!!

Filling Spaces (and I admit it...)

Right now there are three CDs crammed in the one-slot-CD-player in our van.
Because to our youngest, it looked like there was a space there that needed filling.

And today we went to the dentist.
And I'm just going to admit it--
I have a cavity.
Side note--my husband has never-ever-ever-ever-EVER-ever had a cavity.
And we hear about it all the time...
Sigh.
But it's the first one I've had in a LONG time.
And our dentist explained that even though it's not big, he'll have to drill out the area and then fill the space with some sort of composite to keep the area safe.
Because otherwise that hole would over time fill itself with decay.
And then I'll have to walk around in pure numbness for a bit,
trying not to chew up the inside of my own mouth.
But it will fill itself,
If we don't fill it.

Last year, I quit using Facebook for a while = space.
But I filled that time slot with writing = filled space.
Good?

I stopped waking up early to exercise = space.
But I filled that hole with sleep = filled space.
Bad?

Sometimes the exchange is for the better-best.
Sometimes it's neutral.
Sometimes it's intentional.
Sometimes it's accidental.
Sometimes it's worse.

But regardless...
If a space is created it inevitably is filled by something else.

I was talking with a good friend this week about her exercise-changing-eating-journey towards better health. She commented that in order to get rid of the foods that weren't good for her body, she had to replace them with something better.

I want to drive out discontentment and complaining.
I must fill that space with giving thanks and gratitude.

I want to dig out worry and fear.
I must fill that space with trust and Truth.

I want to scrape out anger and impatience.
I must fill that space with kindness and love.

And then I read this last night:

"She made it her business to please her Savior.

The great rule for doing this practically

in all the little events of the day

is to be thinking of Him...and trying to please Him,

by not merely not doing evil

but by doing good--

not merely negatively trying not to be unkind,

not to be disobedient, not to give pain,

but trying positively

to be kind, to be obedient."

~Amazing Dad-- Letters from William Wilberforce to his Children

It's the putting off of Colossians 3--
anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, lies, the old self with its practices...
And it's the filling that space with--
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, love, forgiveness...

And the-- how?

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body.

And be thankful.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,

teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,

singing psalms and hymns and songs,

with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed,

do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

~Colossians 3:15-17

And the very practical--how?

"I had never practiced.

Practiced until it became the second nature, the first skin.

Practice is the hardest part of learning,

and training is the essence of transformation.

Practice, practice, practice.

Hammer. Hammer. Hammer...

Because that habit...

can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper."

~Ann Voskamp, A Thousand Gifts, Chapter 3

The practice of creating a hole and filling it with something better--

Removing the unwanted, but then not leaving it empty...

Instead filling it with that which is good and godly and honoring to Him.

And I said it with my Little tonight as we do every night:

"Goodnight.

Sleep tight.

Wake up bright,

In the morning light,

To do what's right,

With all your might."

And then her addition:

"Oh God...will ya' please help us?"

If you enjoyed visiting with

The Chuppies...

Please consider connecting with us

through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest

or by email.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing with thanks over at:

Jenni Mullinix, Denise in Bloom, Far Above Rubies, Tesha's Treasures,

Growing Home, The Better Mom , Raising Arrows, Titus2sdays, A Holy Experience

Raising Homemakers,Women Living Well, We are THAT Family.

Anything?

I almost deleted the email.
But then--the part about:
"mom to four children, one recently adopted from Rwanda" caught my eye.

Jennie Allen's digital publicist asked me to consider reading and reviewing Jennie's new book anything. I'm hesitant when it comes to book reviews, because I already have a stack of books that I want to read and also because the people-pleaser-in-me dreads a possible scenario where I've agreed to a review and I end up not liking the book.

But this was a while back, when I wasn't seeing Jennie's name pop up all across the web, so I at least decided to visit her website where this photo grabbed my heart.

And then the middle-schooler-in-me noticed that Lauren Chandler, wife of one of our favorite ipod pastors, endorsed Jennie's book. Not that we're founders of the Matt-Chandler-fan-club or anything (okay... so maybe we are members), but when our daughter Selah died, several of Matt's sermons were huge as far as getting us through those next couple of years.

So I dug in...

And wrestled my way through this book.

And loved it and dreaded it.

But when a book is good, I usually have lots of underlining and earmarked pages.

This is what my copy of anything looks like--

Jennie starts by sharing bits and pieces of her own past and the journey and the process of God seeking her out and pulling her to Him. Even though she was raised in a family where God was honored and as a child, she was surrounded by Bible stories and Sunday school...

Jennie remembers, "God feeling a little plastic" (anything pg. 4).

But then she shares about a specific moment when God became real to her:

"In one moment I was free and safe forever.

God moves.

God saves.

In that moment God flipped something dead to life."

~anything pg. 11

She goes on to explain how she was still stuck...free in Christ...but stuck in a place of fear and wanting to please people and how God needed to destroy the mental scrapbook of expectations she had created--expectations of marriage and children and safety and friendships and travel and family and the way "it should go" in her life...

It was the process of slowly uncurling a closed fist of fingers and offering her outstretched hands up to Him, to a place where she could finally pray--

"God we will do anything. Anything."

"The very thought of doing anything

demands everything.

We have to face our fears."

~anything pg. 53

"In America, we've learned the art of being verbally passionate

but highly unresponsive Christ followers.

Christ says over and over again,

there is no such thing.

So we are inadequate.

We had better feel that.

On the edge, you always feel it."

~anything pg.111

But anything is not a a call to radical acts.

Jennie explains that "radical acts were not the goal; we were truly moved by a person, in love with him, with Christ. And out of that love came a willingness to trust and hand over our lives" (anything pg. 119).

And anything will be different for every person. Jennie and her husband share that they are "watching so many people around (them) go from consumers to full-on missionaries without changing professions or addresses" (anything pg. 122).

And she is real and raw in this book. I saw myself in her words...

"Even as I write these words today,

I wonder if I honestly care.

I can barely obey God without thinking,

What will is cost me?

I don't want to think that way.

Left to myself, I am just that selfish.

I want things. I want comfort and fun.

I don't want to suffer.

I want things to feel in control.

Today I don't want to be typing and studying about God's glory--

I'd rather be at Target or on Facebook."

~anything pg. 131

Every time I wanted to throw an argument in the face of her call to anything, she went there...

In one chapter she describes the doubts and concerns expressed by close, godly, loving friends and family, those with wisdom who questioned their increasingly reckless prayer to follow God into anything. I sit on both sides of that conversation. When we were starting our second adoption, just months after our fourth child had died, I had this mental argument with myself over and over. But her words were convicting:

"We have become such a pragmatic society

with our pros and cons and schedules

that when we get to matters of radical obedience,

it's easy for us to talk ourselves out of it.

We rationalize that if the cost outweighs the benefit,

then we shouldn't do it."

~anything pg. 152

I wanted to say to her--

What if the cost of anything is your child?

We have waded through grief before...

That part of anything.

What will you say then?

But she voiced those questions right along with me:

"I tremble as I write this,

but if he allows one of my children

or my husband to die,

or if I get cancer,

or if we lose all we own to bankruptcy,

will I take this back?

Will I wish I'd never said God could have me for anything?"

~anything pg. 183

Praying anything...

Is a call to loving a person--Jesus Christ.

And then to living out that love in a fully-abandoned-life-of-trusting-Him with everything.

It is a call to push past eternity amnesia.

To walk out Heaven-is-real-and-this-life-is-short.

And it scares me.

Because our God isn't safe,

"Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe.

But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

If you are ready to say--

"anything"

Happy Birthdays to the Oldest and Youngest of the Chupp Crew

These two share a special bond.

She was born on his birthday.

It was also Father's Day.

God's gifts to me--

A faithful, loving husband and best friend...

of going-on-16-years.

A daughter representing the...

shout of morning joy, after a night-time of weeping.

~Psalm 30:5

And I know she loves me tons,

But if she has the choice...

she usually chooses--

Dad.

Happy Birthday Jason & Lydia...

I love you both very very much!

And...THIS is What I Worked on During Naptime.

We spent the morning at the park

and Lydia almost fell asleep in the car on the way home...

I was sure she was sound asleep in bed.

But apparently she wasn't.

She found her sister's stamp pads

and managed to decorate every room upstairs in a matter of minutes.

Side note--we don't want her to think this is
"cute" or "funny"
(or to send mixed messages by taking pictures),
So I told her I was taking the photos to send to "Daddy"...
because he would want to know what she did
(and because they'd be having a talk-time tonight).

But...
I was kinda smiling in a crazy-nutty-crying-lost-it-sorta-way.

And this is what she did...

(about 25% of the damage that I actually documented).

But BEFORE painting the walls,

she painted her face, arms, hands, legs and feet...

and left a trail of tiny footprints all over the upstairs.

All over.

Yep..

Pretty much every room upstairs...

And she was quiet.

REALLY quiet.

Every doorknob...

Her sister's desk...

Two lampshades and several walls in her sister's room...

Her sister's dresser...

My bedspread...
(and other bedspreads).

The moment where I told her this photo would be shared with "Dad".
She loves her daddy--
A. Lot.

The irony...

(beyond the "always smiling" shirt)

I had just returned from a summer-in-the-park-study

where we were talking about

giving thanks always--

"..give thanks in all circumstances."

~1 Thess. 5:18

So here it goes...

~ I'm thankful she didn't get hurt.

~I'm thankful I had several bottles of Spot Shot on hand.

~I'm thankful for the conversations Laura & I had while we were cleaning.

~I'm thankful for my friend who cautioned me about sending mixed messages by taking photos...

I almost didn't take the pictures, but felt it was okay in this scenario because Lydia knew they were being sent to her dad and she took that very seriously.

But still--I know God has used my friend to help me be more careful in this area.

~I'm thankful all the ink came out except for the lampshades (and maybe the bedspread).

~I'm thankful this happened today instead of tomorrow when Colson has surgery.

~I'm thankful that I had enough laundry soap to wash everything.

~I'm thankful that I was at a great Bible study this morning,

where God softened my heart before this happened.

~And I'm thankful for Lydia.

She is an amazing gift from Him and she adds joy to our lives daily!

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The Chuppies...

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