Happy Golden 25th Birthday - Nick

 

 

Today we celebrate my oldest son’s birthday…

               my giving son is 25. 

                         25 on the 25th… his golden birthday

                  25 golden years of being this boys mama…

I share about how he changed our life forever here:

             Celebrating our Oldest

As I re-read this post, I am reminded of his consistency as a friend, a brother and a son…

          A man that is steadfast and faithful…       Encouraging and giving…             creative and gentle…

My giving son has started his own blog…   here was his entry on his turning 25…

25 Years Young

Since I started a blog I feel as if I should have some sort of an introduction; an “about the author” if you will. Since I’ll be turning 25 years-young on the 25^th of this month, I figure a list of 25 facts about myself might be a good place to start. Some of these you may know already, others maybe not. I may even use some of these “facts” as topics for my blog in the future. (Hmm…) So here we go!

1) I was born on Saturday, February 25^th 1989; child 1 of 8 to David and Kathey.

My dad and I.

2) I have a stuffed panda bear named “Duh.” When he was given to me I couldn’t pronounce the two syllable word “panda”, I could just say the second half of the word, “Da.” That’s how he got his name. Duh currently resides in my sock drawer with his best friend, Patch the stuffed Dalmatian.

Me, My dog, Prairie Dawn, Duh, and “Fake Duh.”(more on him later.)

3) My favorite book as a child was “Goodnight Moon.” To this day it is still one of my favorites; along with “Where the Wild Things Are”, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, and “The Sneetches.” (Yes, I know those are all kids’ books.)

4) My favorite movie as a child was “Fievel Goes West”, the sequel to “An American Tail.” I also had a Fievel Mousekewitz stuffed toy.

5) The 5 people I look up to the most are Jesus Christ, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., C.S. Lewis, Bono, and my sister Brittaney.

Brittaney and I.

6) As a child my dream job was to be a lawyer. I thought people who wore glasses, and carried around briefcases were cool.

7) Barney the Dinosaur came to my 4th birthday party. Here’s proof!

Barney, Me, Mum, and Brittaney.

8) When I was Middle-School I was really into skateboarding and “rap-core.” (Remember P.O.D., Pax217, and early Linkin Park?)

9) I’ve never had a girlfriend.

10) My favorite genre of fiction is fantasy. My favorite characters are Reepicheep the Mouse (The Chronicles of Narnia), Gandalf the Grey (The Lord of The Rings) and Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire).

11) My favorite TV show as a child was “Darkwing Duck.” It was a spin-off of Disney’s “Duck Tales.” One Halloween my mom made me a Darkwing Duck costume.

Brittaney and I… I mean DARKWING DUCK!

12) My favorite comic-book superhero is V. from “V for Vendetta.”

13) I’ve always loved the Beatles.

14) Paul is my favorite Beatle.

15) I share a birthday with George Harrison.

16) Despite popular opinion, I believe it was actually John who broke up The Beatles.

17) I started collecting vinyl when I was 15; before it was cool. (Kidding, it’s always been cool; hipsters just weren’t around yet.)

18) My favorite album is U2’s “Joshua Tree” and I currently have two copies of it on vinyl. (If you submit me a one paragraph explanation on why I should give it to you, I just might.)

19) I didn’t start drinking coffee till I was 19, and I haven’t stopped since. What can I say, I like coffee. (And coffee mugs!)

20) I was homeschooled since 2^nd grade.

21) My youngest brother, Jonathan is autistic. He has inadvertently taught me so much about tolerance, acceptance, and love.

22) My favorite movie of all time is “Monty Python and The Holy Grail.” (And I will quote it if the opportunity arises.)

23) I’m currently on staff as an intern at Antioch Church on the Rock.

24) I am currently carrying a Nerf gun in the trunk of my car. It is to protect myself from the other interns, who also carry Nerf guns in the trunks of their cars.

25) Finally, I love reading. I firmly believe that if you don’t enjoy reading it is because you haven’t found what you like reading yet.

Me, Myself, and I. #Nofilter

You can check out my giving sons blog at:

@nickchellsen

Happy Golden Birthday Nick~

 

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saying “no” to His blessings

Over the years, during this time of the year…   the harvest season – the pumpkin season

        we have taken out all of our books about autumn, leaves, apples,  and pumpkins

                                and place them in a basket to read or look at.

among this array of books is one called Too Many Pumpkins…

this book is about Rebecca Estelle…

each year in the spring she would plant her garden.  She planted carrots and beans, tomatoes and peas, corn and rutabagas.  She grew a little bit of everything-

                            except pumpkins…   Rebecca Estelle hated pumpkins.

She said “no” to pumpkins. 

You see when Rebecca Estelle was young, money had be tight and for an entire month all they had to eat were pumpkins.  Baked pumpkins, steamed pumpkins, stewed pumpkins, pumpkins for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  So, she decided she would never eat pumpkins again.  She did not want to even look at one…

She said “no” to pumpkins…

One Fall day while she was raking her yard, a huge pumpkin truck passed by.  She heard it coming, so she turned away, not to see it. But a huge pumpkin fell off the truck and broke open all over the edge of her yard.  She shoveled some dirt over the broken pieces and buried all evidence of that reminder of lacking. 

When spring came again the once hidden seeds became a plant of green vines.  She decided to ignore it and not water or tend to it, hoping it would wilt away and die.  But the vines just continued to grow. She cut them down, and dug then out, but week after week they continued to grow. She decided to ignore them and not walk on that side of the yard. 

One autumn day, she had forgotten why she did not go to that side of the house and when she walked around the corner, she saw pumpkins growing everywhere.

She had said “no” to pumpkins…   but her Creator had said “yes”

so she took all those pumpkins and made pumpkin, bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin tarts and pumpkin cookies…

A rich harvest of pumpkin goodness…

hoping to get rid of them all to the people in town.  But when she could not carry all those pumpkin dishes she knew the people would need to come to her.  She made jack o lanterns and lite each one along side the yard and path and the people came.

Young and old… everyone in town came. They enjoyed  fellowship together as they ate the pumpkin delights and as they left she blessed each one of the towns people with the blessing she said “no” to, giving away every baked item, every lantern and a bag of seeds for them to start their own harvest of blessing.  She gave away everything that reminded her of the pumpkins she had always hated…  except a handful of seeds, that she tucked away until next spring…

seeds of healing…

       seeds of restoration…

                 seeds a redemption…

                         seeds of blessing…

        The hubs and I once said no…       to  the Lord…    no to His blessings…

We said “no” to children…

              out of hurts…             out of fear…          out of lacking…

we said “no” - 

Yet, He knew our hearts….          He knew our hurts…              He knew our fears…

and He said “yes”  -

and one by one…

He replaced those seeds of fear with the seeds of love…

      He replaced those seeds of hurt with seeds of healing…

             He replaced those seeds of lacking with seeds of plenty…

     Our “no” to  His blessing…   became our “yes” to all He had for us…

 

and one by one these seeds of blessing are being multiplied for His glory…

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.    ~James 1:17

Living in His Blessings~

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Happy Father’s Day

The character of His children are a reflection of their Fathers love..

                            …children are a reflection of their Father.

The best of this man…
                                                         
 is reflected in each of our children..









In Nick -

I see your love for current events, politics and history…

   …and your gentle strength.

In Brittaney –

I see your all or nothing approach to life…

… and your passion for those you love.














In Alex –

I see your sense of humor, love for music…

… and your love and compassion for children.

In Aaron –

I see your drive for justice…

… and your inventiveness and creativity.







In Jonathan –

I see your wonder for life…

… and your resilience and perseverance.










In Audriona –

I see your loyalty and competiveness…

… and your desire to take care of those you love.









In Angelina –

I see your candidness, (Jersey attitude)…

… and your sense for adventure.

In Shekinah –

I see your hot and cold range of emotions…

… and your desire to talk, and talk and talk -
                                        about the things you love.

A Father…

provides the fountain of strength, wisdom and hope…

… so that his children may build their dreams upon it.

Thank you for providing that fountain of strength, perserverance and love...

                                            ... so our children can dream.

His son is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact likeness of God’s being.  He holds everything together through his powerful words.   Hebrews 1:3

Happy Father's Day - to the most dedicated dad I know~


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Celebrating our oldest

Today we celebrate our oldest child’s birthday…

Today he turns 23

He was born Nicholas Paul

Everyone calls him: Nick

A close musician friend calls him:
The Nickster

His brother calls him:  Nickster the Hipster







He is a young man…

an awesome, handsome, loving young man…




He was the one that forever changed our lives…

He was the first arrow in this quiver full...




He was the one who confirmed in our hearts that having children was a joyous event…
     ... a blessing ... a heritage  ... a reward


He was the one who quieted our doubts and allowed us to see that we could be parents…


He was the one that opened the door…
      for us to return to church...
      for us to desire more children…
      for us learn and grow and develop as parents.



Today we celebrate him…

We celebrate the man he is: 

             Loving, kind, gentle, caring, giving,  
                            creative,  an encourager…

       

 He  loves music, politics, working with the  youth, his siblings (most the time), coffee & Mt. Dew…

            

 He has a strong work ethic, is dedicated to his church, loyal to those he cares about…

                

Above all he desires to serve the Lord with his life… 

He has his dad's love for history... dry sense of humor... quick wit...

love for music... and they eat their popcorn the same exact way.

He has his mother's desire for balance...  creativeness...

need to talk things out by sharing the same thing from every angle.

He has grown into a man of integrity and steadfastness. 

A man that not only blesses and gives great joy to his earthly parents... 

More importantly... 

He is a son who brings great delight and pleasure to his Heavenly Father.

He is the apple of His Fathers eye...



Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings     Psalm 17:8


For thus said the LORD of hosts…
…for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.                  Zechariah 2:8

Happy Birthday Nick - We Love You

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Nick

 Nick - 22

Nick has spend this past year working at World Market and started working at Barnes & Noble's coffee shop this past fall.  He is a dedicated employee and has enjoyed this new experience.  He is also getting quite good at making coffee.  He has taken his hand a cooking and made us Indian food while Brittaney was home visiting from Chico. It was awesome.  He also makes a mean chicken salad, a preference of mine.   He has been writing worship songs and plans to continue to write more of them. He has two of them recorded that I have attached to the sidebar of this blog.                

He has been involved in an informal internship with the church we attend. It is his desire to see this turn into more of a formal internship, as his heart is to be in ministry. He really enjoys working with the youth and has become and awesome leader and encourager. He is still involved in playing worship at youth and the once a month worship nights that our church has, called Belongings.  Nick enjoys being creative in many ways. He has made some really creative art projects for the Belongings events and  he put together an Angry Bird's Game for a  guys youth night - it was a huge hit with both the guys and the gals.

We are so proud of the generous and loving son and big brother that Nick is. We are so encouraged to see him serve the Lord with his many giftings and talents.

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