Some video of Audrey!

Here she is talking and making funny faces. I hope you enjoy! Hopefully I get one up of Cecilia singing today.

Some Silly Simmons' Moments

A couple of days ago Cecilia interrupted me asking Josh a question and said, "MOM! I know something you don't know!" Josh chuckled and she added, "I mean, YOU know about alot of things, but I know something you don't!"

"What do you know?" I asked her in honest curiosity, (I too think that I know about alot of things). Her eyes widened in excitement, her arms went up in a perfect storytelling stance, and she began, "You know when dinosaurs and unicorns were still alive? Well, when they were still alive, the WORLD WAS FLAT!!! Can you believe that?!?"


Gareth's birthday was GREAT! We had a good party and he loved all the games and the presents (photos to come later this week). Josh and I got him a fishing pole and camping seat for his gift. On Saturday morning Josh took him fishing for the first time. They drive to the park and got their poles and chairs out of the car. As they are walking to the water to set up, Gareth looks up at Josh and sighs deeply, "I so happy!"


It's hard to think of story of Audrey, because she is just funny all the time, but it doesn't translate into stories. She loves to sing and tries to sing some of her favorite songs (when I start video taping her she stops! AKKK). She also will lay with me on the bed or sit with me on the couch and she will rub my back or play with my hair. SO ADORABLE! She exclaims all of our names in loud and gravely bark, and loves playing with Gareth. She is also truly obstinate!
At a restaurant a couple of weeks ago she was sticking her finger up her nose. Her Grammy (Josh's mom), moved her finger and said in a playful way, "No, no Audrey." Audrey pulled away from her and JAMMED her finger up her nose and stared defiantly at her Grammy for 5 full seconds. Bewildered Grammy turned to me and I tried to take over, but once she decides to do something it is a bloody and costly battle to take her on.

More Little Man Love

Here is a video of Gareth singing his favorite song! I hope you enjoy it, and be on the look out for some videos of the ladies soon!!



I think the intense ending is an homage to his dad who loves scat.

A Brat's Lament

I am a brat in my deepest self. The urban dictionary’s definition for brat… “Derogatory term for a spoilt person. Originally applied to small children and John MacEnroe.” I don’t know what it is about me: is it because I’m American? Is it because of my temperament? Is it because growing up I thought the goal of faith in Christ was being a good girl and then getting just what I wanted? I don’t know what is at the root of my spoilt-ness, but I know when it most clearly comes out.

Recently life has gotten harder for me. Through some conflict with people I love everything seems to have been stirred up and I wonder if it will ever be peaceful again. I was spending some time journaling about it and I began to hear God say, “Lee, come to me! Depend on me. That is what this upheaval will do. It makes you need Me in more ways. It will make you depend on me for your very life.”

My reaction to this loving call…Anger, frustration and withdrawal. I just want this area of my life to be easy, to fit the dream I have for it. I just want this area to work. I don’t want to be sharpened or pruned here. I just want ease and comfort. I just want Him to leave me alone.
Hopefully you hear the entitlement of this position. God I have a right to remain in control of certain areas of my life. God, I appreciate the way you have brought great life and wholeness to my ministry, my marriage, my parenting, (all of this life brought about by similar struggles) but THIS is off limits. God I need some space!

I’ve been reading the book, “Sacred Marriage”, and while it is speaking in great ways to my relationship with Josh, it is doing more for my relationship with God and others. In the chapter entitled “Sacred Struggle” this quote dug into my heart,
“[Christians] have it so easy that we can begin to be lulled to sleep, thinking that life should be easy or that it will always be easy. Once it gets a little difficult, we tend to become consumed with trying to make our lives comfortable again. But by doing so we miss a great spiritual opportunity. …Ask yourself this question: Would I rather live a life of ease and comfort and remain immature in Christ, or am I willing to be seasoned with suffering if by doing so I am conformed to the image of Christ?...”

So what is God’s response to my bratty need to be left alone? Like the mom in the movie Spanglish when confronted with her own tween daughter’s demand for space, she moves even closer to her sweet child and declares, “There is NOT a space between us.” God’s call to me is one of infinite intimacy and love. Being close to Him is not easy but it is life giving and whole. Being close to Him is not set by my agenda but by His, and He knows me best. He knows what I’m ready for, and what I need freedom from. Thankfully He grabs my bratty heart and bear hugs it into Himself leaving only space for redemption out of my bratty self-entitled flesh into the perfect life of His Son. Praise be to God!

Flying Solo with My Favorite Little Man!

This week I was able to spend some time alone with my favorite little man-Gareth. Because we got pregnant with Audrey so quickly after Gareth’s birth—and I suck at being pregnant and doing life among the living—I’ve not had tons of time where it was just him and me. During our week I notice some interesting things that set Gareth apart from the other two little Simmons'.

**He missed the girls terribly. He moped around the house, and kept asking where they were. At lunch he sighed deeply and said he wanted to only eat lunch with Cilia and Audrey.

**He is careful and able to contain his excitement better than the girls. We went to the grocery store to get a few things, and he pushed around the little kid shopping cart. We had to stop letting Cecilia do this because she rammed into displays, hit other people’s carts and ran over little old ladies trying to pick out produce. But Gareth took his time and concentrated on what he was doing. When others entered our aisle, he slowed down and moved over. With a little prompting he would say excuse me and continue on. He only ran into something once (when he was looking at the wheel of the cart to watch it role). IT WAS GREAT!

**He is super compassionate. When Audrey was upset at the beach—which was a lot of the time—Gareth would stop playing with his cars or trains and come over to help. He would try to talk to her or hold her hand or would bring her a cup. Once he even brought her a train to hold which for Gareth is like letting her have the keys to his new car to take for a spin.

**This morning he woke up around 6, so we decided to get outside and watch the sunrise together. We got a blanket, his bear and I took my Bible. We snuggled down and sat together for a while looking at the sky and talking about where the moon was. Then I read the creation story and we talked about it. I asked him, “Gareth who made the moon?” He replied, “Garbet!”—that is how he says his name. “No…who?” “God.” He replied with a cheeky grin, looking up at me from the corner of his eyes. He answered that way with all my queries about who created this and that…most of the time he said he did, a few times he gave his dad some credit, and once when I asked him who created the beach he said “Peoples!”

**Lastly, I think he is my bravest kid. His name means Brave, and I saw that come out over the past week. Don’t get me wrong, both girls are bolder than he is. Audrey would run out onto the beach and into the water and if you didn’t stop her, she would keep going. She doesn’t seem to know fear. Gareth does. The sound of the waves, the size of the ocean, the height of the big blue slide at Mcdonald's, the chaos of a dog being right in his face and running around his legs. He gets that all these things are bigger than him and could hurt him…but he tries to interact with them in spite of his fear. He gets in the water, he goes down the slide, and he (after a day or so) sneaks up to a sleeping dog, reaches around a corner and tentatively pets him for a minute—and walks away tall! That is bravery. He might not be bold, but he doesn’t let his fear get the last word. He moves past it and jumps into the ocean with both feet.

God and Bad Breath

Like most people I don’t wake up with the freshest mouth. I move to brush my teeth as soon as I can in the morning. I am self conscience about letting anyone get near me. I keep my face under the covers until Josh gets up, I don’t get too close to the kids—keeping my face turned away if they insist on a hug before I can get to the sink. I don’t even like being close to myself…it’s one of my least favorite things about me.

This week, I got to bring Gareth and Audrey to the beach with my parents. Josh and Cecilia had to stay home for school and work. I try to get up before the sun on the first morning when I’m at the beach and go out and spend time with God as the sun comes up. Mark 1 is my motivation. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.” Jesus knew that rest didn’t come princilby from sleep but from time with His Dad. So even after a VERY BUSY day and LATE night, He still gets up early and prays, connects, abides with His Father. I try to follow His example on vacations. Spending the first morning up before the sun, letting my Father know that He is my true vacation, time with Him is TRUE and powerful Rest.

The problem is that I’m the only one waking early in a house full of people. My kids are light sleepers…one sound and they wake up. So when I get up I have to tip, tip, tip toe out the door just to make it down to the beach. That means no time for the cleaning of the mouth. This morning while I was watching the sun rise with my heavenly Father thinking about how He delighted in me because of the life of His Son, I was offended by my breath. I craked the joke in my mind… “OH! God I know you don’t delight in the breath!” And quietly I heard back, “OH! YES I DO!”

My heavenly Father delights in spending time with me no matter what I look like, smell like, or even what state my heart is in. This delight comes from the perfect life of Jesus which He exchanges with me (also a truth shown to us in Mark ). He looks at the life of Christ and is able to enjoy His time with me, and use the time to call me be more like His perfect Son.

I will say, God is maybe the only one I can allow myself to be close to with my stinky bed breath, but through His acceptance of my whole stinky self (and through his cleaning up the stink) I find a way to move closer to those around me—well, after I brush.