Lil' Washer Platt turns "1"

It's hard to believe that it was a year ago today that another sweet baby entered our family. Little Washer Platt came early, came fierce, and was born straight into tradesman's arms during a major snow storm.

That was the beginning of the little surprises lil' washer had in store for us. It's been a difficult year but a bless-ed year, a busy year, but a reflective year.

I thought I would put up some of our favorite photos of the little guy over the last 12 mnths and share why tradesman and I named him what we did...

Not sure what to say about this picture above other than doesn't he remind you of the old man from the movie "UP"

What a precious little blessing Washer Platt has been. When we found out we were expecting a boy, and started to consider names, tradesman shared that he wanted our sons name to represent something. He wanted his name to really matter and to say something about our family.

Many men will name their sons after fathers, uncles, brothers, grandfathers, friends, all people that are special and significant in their life. (we have).
This time tradesman wanted to name our son after 2 men that have played a very significant, and life changing role in our family's life, and in tradesman's life specifically.

God has used the teachings of two godly preachers to shape, mold, and revive our faith in a way that has changed us both forever. To our Heavenly Father, we will always be grateful for this.

Raising a godly family has been a passion of ours, and yet complacent, cultural Christianity is all around us. Raising children who were dedicated to living out their faith passionately, pursuing holiness rather than worldliness and choosing to live set apart for the purpose to which God had called them too was and is our desire.

The first time we heard Paul Washer speak, we knew we had found a brother. He was saying things that we had never heard anyone preach before. There were many amens resonating in our hearts.

You can listen to the first sermon that we ever listened to of his right here. Be warned, this isn't for the faint of heart. Some will not like him because he preaches straight up from the word of God with conviction and passion.

For us, his preaching is so refreshing, affirming, challenging and invigorating as many pastors today proclaim that they are preaching from the word of God but they still preach with an obscure, fleshy agenda.
Paul Washer's preaching drives us to the word of God and edifies our faith.
If you want to download his sermons, you can find them here.

There are so many great ones. Some favorites would be his sermons on Biblical Missions, Biblical manhood and womanhood, Be a man, The true Gospel, Examine yourself, 10 indictments against the modern church, Biblical courtship...honestly, I could go on and on, so I won't. You'll have to check him out for yourself.

Tradesman listens to him daily, he can't get enough. If you only have a moment, here is just a snippet right now to give you an idea. Right here. (an oldy, but goody)

Tradesman and I attended the "Desiring God" conference in Minneapolis back in September and unbeknown to us Paul Washer and his ministry, Heart Cry had a table in the conference hall.
We "bumped" into him in the hallway and got to have a little chat with him and when he was holding lil'washer I snapped a quick pix of the two of them.

He took the time to pray with us and over lil'Washer..what a blessing.

The other preacher that we named our little guy after is David Platt. A couple years ago tradesman and I came across the sermon series he had preached in his church. It was named the Radical series.

These 8 sermons shook us, challenged us, and brought us on our faces before God in a new way. God used them to change much about how we think, and life-changing was the impact.

You can find all 8 sermons here. And you can find all of David Platts sermon series (all excellent) for free here at Disciple making International.

Since then David Platt has written a book called Radical and Radical together, both of which I highly recommend.
Watch out though, you and your family will never be the same!

Well, that was a lot of links, and such an inadequate description of what the Holy Spirit has done and continues to do in our lives through these two anointed men of God and their obedience to the proclamation of the Word of God.

If you and your family choose to pursue these teachings, God will use them to break you apart in pieces, undo you completely, and bring you to a point where He can use you for His glory.

Woe is us, a people of unclean lips...may His grace be upon us.




p.s. If you would like to know why our family is passionate about listening to sermons regularly and why we believe it is necessary to continue to be in the Word of God daily and pursue diligently to hear from those gifted by God to teach, you can read my post here.

You Know When...

You know you just had a high-need baby when....


1. Your laundry piles no longer can be contained or hidden...like King Kong they invade the city (your home) in mass destruction.


2. You walk around all day with your shirt on inside out AND backwards. You are not aware of this until your hubby on arriving home chuckles lightly and informs you.


3. Speaking of clothing...getting "dressed up" just means ACTUALLY getting dressed.


4. Coffee is no longer optional...it is required for basic survival.


5. Clutter piles have become your new favorite way to decorate.


6. You've resorted to cereal as the breakfast of champions.


7. Someone in the grocery store asks you if this is your "first" as you simultaneously bounce fussing, unsoothable baby while unsuccessfully fishing for wallet in spilling diaper bag you mumble and cough "yes."


8. You have not a clue how old your baby is.


9. Grade.4 math stumps you.


10. You fantasize about what it would be like to get sleep in 4 hr increments.


11. You feel pampered when you have time to shave your legs.


12. You thank God for this gift and lesson in humility as you come to the realization that you apparently are NOT the baby "know it all" veteran.








p.s. pix of the little, high-need, well-loved masterpiece coming up soon...that is when I can find my camera amongst the wreckage. :)

9 Month Catch Up in Pictures

What's been happening around here?


Last summer my 15 yr. old wanted to be baptized and asked tradesman to do so.

And thanks to granda, we as a family took a trip to Disney.

Yes, I made the boys go on Cinderellas Carousel...'cause I can get away with it, I'm the mother. Besides, I feed them and with teenage boys that means you hold all the power.

You should also know that Baby My is no longer a baby. See...

Oh ya, and this little guy joined our family.

Well, that about wraps up the last 9 months of excitement.

Glad to be back!

p.s. so sorry about my un-announced very LONG blogging hiatus.

Grandmothers

Grandmothers through the years have played powerful roles in the lives of many godly leaders.
Often you will read of someone who will say that their grandmother was a strong spiritual role model, or that their grandmother prayed for their salvation for years.


Tradesmans' mother, my childrens' grandmother is what you would call a prayer warrior. At least that is what I was told by many when I first married tradesman and I knew it to be true when I saw the many binders filled with pages upon pages of people and things that this dear women brought before our Lord daily.


I remember feeling very intimidated by that years and years ago.

Now I am just grateful.

So very grateful.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

How long have you and tradesman been together?

Tradesman and I have been together for 19 years. 16 of them of which we have been married. I have spent more years with tradesman than I have ever spent without him!

Are you going to try and have any more babies after losing your twins?

Honestly, we would love more children. If God chooses to give us more then we would be thrilled! The next best thing to serving Jesus in this life has been having our kids! We find them, outside of our relationships with God, to be the most fulfilling things in our lives.

Where do you live?

Because this was an anonymous comment that I did not publish I am not going to answer this in case you are a stalker, axe murderer! I hope you understand! :)

Are you going to homeschool your kids all through Highschool?

Yes! Why stop a good thing now? It works for us and our family. We honestly believe that God has called us to this, so now I simply remind myself when it seems I am not cut out for it or it's too difficult that there is no turning back! Our eldest will actually be gr.10 in the fall and I still like having him home! (well, most of the time ;)

What DID you have for breakfast?

I'm not telling.

Do you celebrate the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus in your house? What about Halloween?

This could be a BIG answer so I am going to try and keep it short. :)

We have changed how we do things over the years. There was a time that we did the Santa Claus thing. Our boys were little and we started to feel convicted ourselves about OUR focus on the true meaning of the season so we started to weed out that side of Christmas a little every year. We were never comfortable lying to our boys and telling them that there was a Santa, so we didn't . We would just play pretend and they knew from the beginning that tradesman was really Santa. We would still leave out cookies and milk and carrots for the reindeer all in fun.

The problem was that it was hard enough to keep our focus on the birth of Christ with all the shopping, festivities, presents and such, nevermind the big jolly fellow. Eventually, we decided for us and our family that it all had to stop. Our kids know the real story behind Saint Nicholas, so we try to focus on the gifts as a chance to bless others. Our kids receive 3 gifts each as Jesus was presented with 3 gifts from the wisemen. We also fill stockings for them with candy, toiletries, school necessities and silly little items.

We still decorate our home with seasonal things and put up a tree and such. We just avoid the whole Santa, what do you want for Christmas, reindeer, Frosty the snowman thing. We keep the kids out of stores, and activities that are focused around Santa during that season. We celebrate Advent and have made new traditions and new ways to celebrate. It has been a huge blessing for us and I have found that our family has been able to focus on the coming of our Saviours birth with so much more intention now. I do have a little ornament that has Santa kneeling with his hat in his hands at the manger with baby Jesus lying there. I love it and it sits right in the middle of my kitchen island and is a reminder to all of us of why we have no part in any of the regular Christmas festivities any longer.

As for the Easter bunny? Same kind of thing. No Easter bunny at our house. We do a sort of lent devotional every year and other things as well including resurrection eggs. We still normally do an egg hunt and chocolate bunny that weekend. However, we have decided that next year we will start a tradition of "Spring baskets and egg hunt" and do it a couple of weeks before Easter so that it is done and over with and we can use the 2 weeks leading up to Easter more reverently. We were just finding that the typical, traditional, Easter festivities invade on the true reason we celebrate and we just don't like it.

Halloween? We have used it as a way to evangelize the last 2 years. We give out tracts and candy in little bags and my kids go around the neighborhood and give out tracts to each door that they receive candy from. It's been great, the responses from people to the kids have been really neat. We were going to throw the whole Halloween thing aside until we saw it as an opportunity to spread the gospel. Next year tradesman and I will be setting up some hot apple cider outside and hoping to talk to parents as they come by. We will also be giving the book "One heartbeat Away" found here out as well. (powerful evangelistic tool) We don't do the spooky decoration thing and again keep our kids out of stores and Halloween activities.

How do you keep up with all of your children? I find it hard with just 3!

I remember those days! Trust me, it is SO much easier now. Once some of the kids get older, they are a great help around the house, and they help to entertain the little ones.

The kids always have someone to play with and despite the fact that there are more people making a mess, there are also more people to help clean it up!

The only real challenge I find is food. My life is all about the food prep now!
If I had an answer on this one, I'd let you know! ;)


There was one more important question that deserves a post all of it's own. That is coming up. Also many of you asked what was the big burden on my heart. I will share a little in a future post.


That was fun! If you have any more questions go ahead and send them to me at thepassionatehousewife@gmail.com and I will do another post just like this when there is enough.



Blessings!

Got Questions? Get Answers!

I have been neglectful of blogging these days because frankly I am in some serious thinking moods.

Honestly, I have so much on my heart these days and it is all rather big that spilling it here does not fulfill the purpose of my blog. And it could scare some of you away! :)

Tradesman and I have been on a very exciting journey the last two years specifically these last 6 months.(that does not mean always fun or easy... actually mostly not) We are not sure exactly where we are headed and what it will look like but God has given us a bit of a picture that is just too difficult to ignore.

I started this blog to encourage mothers in their high calling of motherhood and keeper of their homes. To embrace their daily lives with their husbands and children and most importantly to seek hard after God.

I love sharing my heart and often hold back, especially as of late. I cannot put up a lighthearted, silly post because I am just not in a lighthearted, silly mood these days. I feel a burden SO big, and I feel a passion SO huge that it consumes my every waking minute. I know that it is God who has bestowed this burden on me because it is Him whom I have pursued and it is Him whom I have devoted my life too.

I asked, He answered.


But, for today I have decided to open up the floor to YOUR questions.

Curious about something that pertains to motherhood, marriage, faith or anything else to do with this crazy family??

Send your questions to thepassionatehousewife@gmail.com or you can list them under the comments on this post. You can always click on anonymous in the comments if you're shy! :)

Ask away!

(except don't ask what I had for breakfast because I might be forced to lie)

Sweetly Broken, Wholly Surrendered

The day arrived.

My little ones due date came and went. Since it was winter when they died there was far too much snow on the ground to bury them. We decided to wait and bury them on their due date which was May.21 st and along with them the planting of a tree.

I hesitated on whether to show these...that is why it is a week later. If I offend anyone, I am sorry.

Each picture tells a story and has special meaning to me. It is how I needed to capture and remember this whole journey and its conclusion.

The new song(Sweetly Broken)playing on my playlist is the song of my heart these days. The words comfort and restore me...

"At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered "

"In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness"