Truth, Trust and Choosing a Tomorrow

In the midst of our time together I had a middle child make an incredibly ridiculous choice. I'm old ya know. Parenting is not so new. Poor choices are not so surprising. Lying? Hum...STILL, years later, bothers me. I hope it ALWAYS bothers me!! I laughed at the cartoon above. It reminded me of my words yesterday as Scott and I stood in a son's doorway, "I will give you three minutes to hand me anything else that doesn't belong here." Kids sure can make life a whole lot harder than it needs to be!!

Scott and I stood and listened to a child trying to weave a lie and I was once again reminded of one of my favorite phrases, by one of my favorite people....The truth will set you free!

more specifically said ....

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Sometimes my children think they can get by with a half-truth. I'm sorry. The truth isn't like the silly putty Mrs Celina lets my kids play with in church. It can't be twisted, turned, squeezed or patted long enough to be considered anything that is TRUTH. The quote is NOT... "the truth will set you free if no one asks the correct question". A half-truth, an evasion, is not alright. Frankly, my experience shows that evading usually doesn't work out to well either. Maybe even worst than a lie. Half-truths directly affect trust, and the fact that a person is doing it will willful defiance and directed lies? I think make me even more upset. Truth and Trust. Both deal with reality...that which is REAL.

My kids make bad choices...no surprise there! I do too. But, ownership? ... huge, HuGe, HUGE!! The reality of our choices, understanding what is good and right and true....those things will set you free, those things will give you the opportunity to "make it right". A lie is never going to make anything right.

MAKE IT GREAT!! Our lives and the choices are always ours to make!!

Each day is a new canvas to paint upon. Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, and at the end of the day you don't look at it and wish you had painted something different.
-- Author Unknown

Dispersing kids....

This week Chelsea has been "around" like she was when she was younger(lol...aka...not married with a family of her own). As we stood in the pantry putting away toilet paper and paper towels Chelsea looking up to see trash bags said, "Just this week we ran out of the trash bags I bought when Bo and I got married!" Around here we run through those bags!! She laughed and said, "And that box only had FIFTY-FIVE bags! Funnier still is that Bo thinks we go through too much trash!" Perspective:) What an eye opener. She went on to compare toilet paper and paper towels and simple things we run through at rapid rates and she meanders through in months. What is huge to one person is small to another...perspective:)


This morning my biggies were up and laughing together. I just love those moments. Chelsea, Bo and Caleb were getting ready to head to Birmingham to the Southern Evangelism Conference. Bo is teaching a class and Caleb is going with them:) Caleb will return home tonight but Chelsea and Bo will head to their home in Georgia. Oh how I will miss them! My time is dwindling away. Doug went back to Freed last Sunday. Stuart went back yesterday. I have just a few days left with Caleb before he heads back to Afghanistan. Time is slipping away!


I had several people talk about the tears shed when Caleb came home. I did not cry that much....he was home. To me the goodbye is so much harder. I could cry just thinking about it....but, my like all my big kids it is the absence of their presence, of the joy they bring that I miss so greatly!


One of my oldest friends (haha...not "oldest" but longest relationship with) made the comment last week ".... Now, I like to think I am a strong person and a devoted mom, but if Wes came to me with the same prospect(the Army), I think I'd drug him and when he awoke, we'd be Canadians." How funny. It made me laugh. My response was...."...you are a supportive mom...period! The hardest part of parenting is ALWAYS knowing that our will is ours and our incredible children? Well, they have their own wills too:) Loving them means accepting choices sometimes that we might not have made for ourselves. We guard our children against sin....but how on earth do you guard them against honor? Even in Canada you would not be safe..lol!" Good kids, strong kids, those kids with unwavering faith? Those qualities are the EXACT thing we mom's pray for! Hard to knock a blessing.

I am so greatly blessed. I know that. If there is anything I have learned through parenting my children? The simply knowledge that there is only ONE DESTINATION to seek. But there are so many paths, no one road for my kids. They may be my chicks and they did an awesome job following for so many years...but now that row is dispersed and those chicks are making their own tracks:) I am ever so ever grateful their paths are headed in the right direction!

Beautiful....Inside and Out:)

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!

- Kalidasa








How do you capture beauty with words? I'm not sure it's even possible? Beauty, true beauty, is a living thing. To be true is has to be a God thing. It's something my Chelsea has in spades:) She's lovely. I could just sit around and smile as I watch her. All the kids miss her spirit! They're all so happy when she and Bo slide into town. I think today she is more beautiful than ever....why? Well, is would be because of this neat guy:







The real beauty is in this....a life spent as God intented. A life spent with God at the center. Bo and Chelsea spend their lives in service to God, the beauty of their lives pours out! I have had Chelsea home longer this week than any week since she married. I have watched her and her wonderful husband play, laugh, work, and simply be with us! Inside and out they are two of the most beautiful people I know!! They really do make each and every day GREAT!!




PS...Obviously I got all the wedding pictures in this week:) I had to share some of those as I talk about my sweet kiddos!

bloggers paradise

"You haven't blogged again mom?"

Those words were from Caleb who was sitting beside me wanting to read the blog. Silly guy, he's here! He knows what's going on:) I laughed and just told him I hadn't had time. Not really the truth. The truth would be I haven't taken the time!

My house right now is a bloggers paradise....SO MUCH going on at my house! I will likely forget most of it before I ever get to blogging...

Last night Starla Steward Holl came to our house and took family pictures. Starla is INCREDIBLE!! She was in and out in about an hour...to my kiddo's relief. As we talked earlier in the day about picture taking I told her I wanted to just keep the main thing the main thing...and the main thing is a GOOD family picture. It's all I wanted. After I snuggled into bed Sarah called and said Starla had posted sneak peeks of a few pictures. This picture is an "undoctored" version....but incredible!! I love it. I thought I would share:)



If you too want an AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, MEMORABLE, FOREVER AND EVER AMEN SHOT? Then skip right over the STARLA's site and make your dreams come true:)

And if you don't have a bazillion kids? Starla is STILL/EQUALLY Wonderful! She took these too and posted them as "sneak peeks":

Asahi's with kids:)

Tonight Scott and I took all our big kids (meaning 17 and older) along with our wonderful nephew Jeremy to Asahi's Japanese Steakhouse. I wish there were words to describe the silliness, the laughter, the joking and pure joy that comes when you can just sit unhindered and listen to their goofiness. I personally can think of nothing more wonderful. Even neater is when my children, whom I love so much, stand outside the restaurant for 35 minutes posing for pictures laughing and carrying on. It's evenings like tonight that I carry with me in my heart. I have some neat kids and it is always nice to have reminders of just how blessed I am!!








PS.. I would be terribly remiss to not thank Courtney, Chelsea and Sarah's dear friend, who came to the house to baby sit my 10 little Indians for the evening. Thank you sweet Courtney!!

Happy Birthday Stuart!!

Stuart is my third child to pass the milestone of "21". It is not nearly as hard as I had thought if would be....seriously, I love my grown kids!! They are seemingly officially grown when their age exceeds 21:)

Stuart is home until school starts back....I love having him home!! No more jumping from planes, well, perhaps not this week.

We celebrate tonight with his favorite cheesecake, ice cream and yummy toppings.

BTW...John did not want to put this picture on the blog...he believes he looks (his words) "uber gay". But, it's hard to crop out the guy who places himself front and center!

Caleb's Thoughts

Caleb wanted to share his thoughts:) So I am turning the "floor" (aka blog) over to him for a post!


Hello everyone, My name is Caleb Holt Smotherman and I am Amanda Smotherman's Soldier Son. I have decided that I would blog just to see what it feels like to put all my thoughts about life onto the inter webs without status updates on facebook. This way I am not limited to a certain amount of letters, numbers, and what not I can use. I can type all I want.

First things first, If you do not already know, My mom is better than your Mom. Just wanted to go ahead and put that out there so that you won't have to come to realize it on your own later.

Me and my Mom go way back. We are about to have our 20 year anniversary (my birthday). I will be in Afghanistan for this special time in mine and my mothers life but I will be sure not to turn 21 until I get back. So that we can spend that Birthday together instead.

While in Afghanistan, I read my Mom's blog whenever I get free time just to keep up with what I can that's going on at home. Without this Blog I would never know what to expect when I got home! Without this Blog I might have never known that My little brother Danny "Porkchop" Smotherman was living his life to "fullest"....in our Kitchen. I would never have known that my sister Sarah had finally found a guy that she would "claim" in public as her boyfriend. No offense towards you Paden if you are reading. And most importantly I would never have realized how many GREAT things my family were doing on the other side of the world. "You'll never know how much you miss something, until you don't have it anymore." I never appreciated this statement as much as I do today. THAT one phrase sums up every feeling I have towards my wonderful family. I have never missed anyone or anything as much as I have missed my Family and the home that I grew up in. I say all of this so that you (the youngerish sibling readers) can start to appreciate the smaller things in life, the blessings that fill your lives everyday. Don't figure this out on your own. Don't waste the time you have now neglecting your family. Embrace what time you have been given and share it with the ones who YOU mean most to.

Now that I've had my spill, I'll go. Don't judge me as a person by this blog. I'm a rookie. I'm not as awesome at this as my mother. She's been practicing for a long time.