Monster Spray - Or an alternate use for a can of Glade that doesn't really smell like a Country Garden.

Peter loves monsters, ghosts and skeletons. He loves anything creepy, spooky or scary.

And all of this is well and good until bedtime. And then when it's time to be alone in the dark, his imagination kicks into overdrive - and he gets scared.

One night several weeks ago as I kissed him goodnight, he told me he was afraid that there might be monsters in our house and asked me to stay in his room all night.

I told him emphatically there were no monsters in our house and that there were no such things as monsters anyway.

But he didn't believe me and continued to ask me to stay with him.

I already had several shows lined up on the DVR that were calling to me from downstairs so I had to think fast.

I ran into the bathroom and grabbed a can of Glade air freshener. I took it back to Peter's room and said, "Look! Monster spray!"

He was intrigued and asked, "Monster spray? What's monster spray?"

So I started spraying the Glade under his bed and in his closet - you know, all the places scary monsters are known to hide. And as I was spraying, I was telling him that the smell of the spray scared the monsters away. Because everyone knows that monsters are mean, dirty creatures and that the monster spray smells so pretty and flowery that they have to run away from it as soon as they smell it.

He bought it. He got so excited that he wanted to use the spray himself. After a few more shots of Glade Country Garden, he climbed under his covers, said good night and immediately fell asleep.

And we have sprayed the monster spray diligently before bedtime every night for the last three weeks.

The only downside to the monster spray is that now every evening my upstairs smells like Glade Country Garden but my son is sleeping peacefully so it Works For Me.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, please visit Kristin at We Are THAT Family.

There is one born every minute after all...

On Saturday afternoon Sarah grabbed a bag of Quaker Delights from the pantry and ran into the playroom. "Peter! Do you want a bag of these? There's one bag left. You can get it."

"Bring me a bag and I'll pay you a dollar!" was his lazy reply.

Sucker! She'll never see that dollar, I thought.

She grabbed the snack from the pantry and happily ran it into the playroom for him. (Please note - the playroom is 5 feet from the pantry.)

"Thanks Sarah!"

Not two minutes later, Peter ran past me through the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Where you going, honey?" I yelled after him.

"To my bedroom, to get Sarah the dollar that I owe her for getting me the snack," was his reply.

Who's the sucker now?

Miracle Monday - Hope

It's Miracle Monday again!

Last Monday, I introduced you to Jeneil and Rhema. Rhema has Autism. She recently turned 5.

Five normally holds so much promise and delight.

But for Rhema's mom, Jeneil, five meant that Rhema had reached a mark in time "where 'early intervention' is no longer early, and brain plasticity is… not so 'plastic.' The age where the 'window' of opportunity for an autistic child supposedly slams shut.

According to Jeneil, Rhema, at age five has, "the receptive and expressive language of a 12-month old. If that. She will not understand that it’s her birthday. She will not march off to the local kindergarten with her peers. Last month, the neurologist said that medicine had done all it could do."

According to the doctors and their research, five was the magic number for Rhema. If her outcome was going to be "favorable" she should be talking by age five or she most likely would not ever have functional speech.

Rhema had just turned five when Jeneil wrote this post two weeks ago. She wrote that even though five was upon them and Rhema was not talking yet, she was not giving up hope.

Because Jeneil knows she doesn't need to depend on the word of neurologists or therapists or medicine. Because she has hope. Hope in Jesus.

A hope that says "...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." - Romans 5:3-5

And it is because of that hope, that two weeks after Rhema turned five, this happened.

The Lord is good. All the time.

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is he who takes refuge in him. - Psalm 34:8

If you have something you want to share, it's easy to participate in Miracle Monday. Just post a miracle or an answered prayer on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.

Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL (www.beth-amomslife.blogspot.com) in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

Keep Believing

Today marks Angie and Brian's 12 year wedding anniversary. Please pray for Angie as she celebrates this day without Brian.

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep

by Mary Frye

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

Angie - I hope you are able to see and feel Brian all around you today. Happy Anniversary.

You better pay what you owe!

Since it's April 15th, the verse of the day at Biblegateway made me chuckle...

“This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”- Romans 13:6-7

So you better pay what you owe because not only is it the law but it's The Law!

It was horrifying!

This morning as Sarah was getting dressed she said she had a bad dream last night. When I asked her what it was about she explained, "Cheyanne wore the same clothes and the same shoes every day. For a lot of days in a row. It was horrifying!"

Horrifying?

I think she may be watching too much Martha Speaks. Either that or too much What Not To Wear!

Miracle Monday - Rhema's Hope

Welcome to another edition of Miracle Monday.

Today I want to introduce you to Jeneil. Jeneil is mom to 5 year-old Rhema and 2 1/2 year-old Hope. When Rhema (pronounced RAH-MAH) was 2 she was diagnosed with autism as well as a seizure disorder and a feeding disorder.

Jeneil and her husband Brandon (who is in the army) chose the name Rhema for the daughter because it means "the spoken word" and the Greek translation which is used in the Bible means "God's Word revealed."

They chose to name Rhema this when she was born because they hoped "that she would always speak and share the wonderful Truth about salvation in Christ."

Rhema is almost 5 and due to her Autism is nonverbal. But please don't think that Rhema doesn't speak volumes about God's Truth every single day.

Jeneil writes about Rhema in her blog Rhema's Hope. She relates their struggles and their joys in such a beautiful way. Jeneil sees God in everything and has such a beautiful way of writing about all of their experiences. She is able to bring everything back to the Word of God and does it in such a way that at the end of the post I'm usually covered in goosebumps, or teary-eyed, or laughing.

Jeneil sees God's love and his faith in everything and it shows in her writing. Jeneil captures the everyday struggles of Autism with such beauty. She has the faith and ability to see every small step forward with Rhema as a miracle from God and she doesn't take any gift from him for granted.

Oh, and Jeneil's twin sister is battling MS and winning. (Even more for me to love about Jeneil and her family!)

If you have a chance today, please visit Jeneil at Rhema's Hope and spend some time in her archives. I think you will be truly blessed.

I would like to leave you today with the following verse that Jeneil quotes to Rhema every night as she is tucking her into bed:

...The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is LORD”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” - Romans 10:8,9

If you have something you want to share, it's easy to participate in Miracle Monday. Just post a miracle or an answered prayer on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below.

Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL (www.beth-amomslife.blogspot.com) in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

The Lord Is Risen!

"He is not here; He has risen!" - Luke 24:6

It wouldn't be Easter without a few dinosaur eggs!

It wouldn't feel like Easter if we didn't dye eggs.

So yesterday I boiled up two dozen eggs, covered the table with newspaper, set out twelve tea cups, put three tablespoons of vinegar into each cup and called the kids into the kitchen.

The Paas set contains twelve dye tablets so Peter and Sarah got to choose six each. They put the tablets into the cups and started "oohing" and "ahhing" as the tablets fizzed.

After the fizzing stopped (or at least until the kids couldn't wait any longer) we added the water and then the eggs.

I tried to convince the kids to leave the eggs in for a while to insure deep dark brightly colored eggs. But kids being kids, they couldn't wait. So after the first round of eggs turned pale shades of pink and blue and purple, they put in the second round of eggs. Unfortunately I didn't divide the eggs and Sarah was blowing through the eggs more quickly than Peter.

So our picture perfect egg dyeing session ended up with lots of bickering and whining and complaining.

"Mommmmm! She's getting too many eggs!"

"Mommmmm! He's got all the dark colors!"

"She's got all the light colors."

"Well why don't you both trade colors?"

"NO!"

"Mom look! I'm making an egg with more than one color on it!"

"Mommy! Peter's eggs with more than one color look prettier than my eggs. I want my eggs to look like his."

And the whining and complaining and bickering continued until all of the eggs were dyed. And thanks to the fact that the kids decided to dip each egg into multiple colors, most of our eggs look like a shade of faded blah. "Faded blah" - be looking for that on an orangish, brownish, greenish Crayola crayon in a 64-pack coming to a store near you!

Next year, I think I'm going to do three dozen eggs so I'll have a dozen to do my way! Momma wants some bright bold eggs that don't look like dinosaur eggs!

Happy Easter!!