A Great High Priest

I was so encouraged by today's entry in Morning and Evening. I got a call this morning from my mom who had read the entry before I did. She was enocouraged by these words and knew I would be as well. Thanks mom for calling me and caring for me!

"We are told that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering; therefore we who are sinful and who are far from being perfect must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too... But there is one very comforting thought in the fact of Christ's being made perfect through suffering- it is that He can have complete sympathy with us. He is not a high priest who is "unable to sympathize with our weaknesses." In this sympathy of Christ we find a sustaining power. One of the early martyrs said, " I can bear it all, for Jesus suffered and he suffers in me now; He sympathizes with me, and this makes me strong." Believer, grasp this thought in every agonizing experience. Let the thought of Jesus strengthen you as you follow in His steps. " Spurgeon

Now I have not had "agonizing experiences" this week but I know others who have. I've seen Jesus be their Great high priest. For me it's sometimes in the day in and day out of caring for cranky, whiny kids, who I love very much, where I grow weary. How wonderful it is to know that Jesus is their strengthening me as I walk in His steps.

Friend for Rylee

On Saturday we hung out with my friend Lory and her new baby Ellie. We took a short trip to target. I say short because we forgot it was saturday and that's the wrong day to be walking around target! So we grabbed our stuff and came back to my house. When we got home I put Rylee on the floor and it took only a few minutes for her to notice baby Ellie sleeping in the corner. Once she spotted her she quickly crawled to the corner and was all over her with excitment!

Wow I can't believe how big Rylee has gotten! Seeing the two together made me realize how much Rylee has grown.

I put Rylee in her bumbo seat to try to keep her from mauling her new friend. That only sort of worked...


Lory was kind and agreed to let Taylor hold her with my help. While Taylor was holding her she snuggled up to her head and whispered "Oh I love her just as much as I love Rylee" It was so sweet. Lory and I realized that at some point Taylor could be babysitting her.

Happy Birthday Chris

Today is Chris' Birthday. We have had a fun few days of celebrating. For our date weds night we went to the Keg steak house and Gainey Ranch afterwards. It was a beautiful night! We enjoyed a gondola ride and spent some time talking outside while listening to live music. For his birthday I got him a new golf club. I was really excited for this gift and thankfully he was really excited to recieve it. Something you may not know about my husband is that he is a very contented man. I know a great fit for me. He will wear things into the ground without ever complaining or desiring something new or better. Pastor's have been known to give him shoes, clothes, wallets etc. I usually have to throw old stuff in the trash to force him to go buy something new! It really is a great quality, one I could learn from! So being married to him for almost seven years now I know that one, he loves golf and two, in seven years he hasn't bought anything that would improve his game. So with the help of the dad's I got him a new hybrid golf club.

For our singles care group thursday night everyone showed up early to surprise Chris. I had prepared a spaghetti dinner for Chris and the group. Perhaps the most excited for this suprise was Taylor. She helped all day getting ready and could hardly contain herself waiting for everyone to arrive. This week was not only Chris' birthday but two other guys as well. We took the night to eat, honor the guys with encouragement and eat some more. It was a great night. And tonight, for our final night of celebration, Chris and I's parents are coming over for dessert and a mean game of Hand and Foot.




The birthday boys were given this shirt as a present!

MRI Results

Yet I will rejoice. Habakkuk 3:18
This is how to deal with God. Praise Him before you are delivered. Praise Him for what is coming. Adore Him for what He is going to do. I do not think there is a sweeter song in God's ear than the song of one who blesses Him for grace that has not yet been tasted, who blesses Him for answers that have not been received but are sure to come. (Beside Still Waters)

I have been focusing on these words this week. As I've waited for the results to see if I had MS or not I have praised him for the answers I did not have but knew were coming. Either way they would be from the Lord and his good hand. I found out yesterday that everything looked good! My brain looks great... whether it's working properly or not well, the verdict is still out on that. But as I picked up a birthday cake yesterday from costco to find out that I have put not only a wrong pick up date but a wrong name as well I was assured that no my brain does not always work properly :-)
I was given a referral to a neurologist who is also a chiropractor to further investage the cause of my symptoms. I should be seeing him in a few weeks. Thanks for your prayers!

Week in Review

Some exciting things have been happening in the Daukas household. Way more exciting than MRI's! Rylee has cut her first two teeth!! Her first bottom tooth broke through the skin last week and the other broke through this morning. We are all rejoicing... teething is no fun for baby or mommy :-) But even in her misery she is still a sweet thing. Also, Rylee has mastered crawling. She began around five months and this past month she has gotten quicker and moved from an army crawl to a hands and knees crawl. Lately I'll find her in the kitchen, hallway, trevor's room. She is quite the explorer!


There has also been some sweet moments with the kids enjoying Rylee. They'll get on the floor and crawl with her or sit and play with her. There is even one toy that gets all three playing together! She gets the biggest kick out of her brother and sister.

Do Not Fear

"Do not fear" Zephaniah 3:16
"What? Not even a little?"
"No, do not fear."
"Surely I may show some measure of fear?"
"No, do not fear."
Spurgeon, Beside Still Waters



I was thankful that I read this before my MRI yesterday. I repeated these words over and over as they pushed me into the tunnel. I repeated something else my husband told me minutes earlier... "don't open your eyes tara, don't open your eyes." It worked for a little while but then it got to be too much and well, I opened them. "AHHHHH get me out of here" my body screamed. I broke out in sweats everywhere and began to shake. My neck felt like is was going to expload from holding still. Now, amazingly enough I didn't ask to be taken out but I did move my head. Which works just as well as asking to be taken out, without having to face your pride. The lady came in very quickly and pulled me out saying "you moved your head". She had to reposition me and start over. Oh man I had no idea how clasustrophobic I was until yesterday. Supposedly it was an "open" MRI. But I've never felt more closed in in my life!! By the grace of God only did I make it through that test! I literally prayed and begged for mercy the entire time!! I was always a second away from losing it completely. Which I find comical. There is nothing painful about an MRI. I should've enjoyed being able to sit still for 40 minutes and not having to chase kids around. But unfortunately I did not find laying completly still while loud noises beep in your ear enjoyable. If I ever need one again they will have to drug me :-) Or as my old pastor said to me in response to him getting another MRI " Forget drugged I need to be completely unconscious!". You may wonder why I got an MRI. Well I've had some periodic numbness in my hands and arms recently and when I saw my dr. last week she thought it best to rule out some things before going to the more likely explanations like pinched nerve etc. I'm in complete faith for the results and just really glad the MRI is done!

Crazy Hair Day

This brings crazy baby Daukas hair to a new level... no joke I didn't do a thing she just woke up like this...




but thankfully it's nothing a nice bath can't fix!

God who Saves

I was reminded afresh last night that it is God who saves! On Tuesday nights, for six weeks, our church hosts a class called Life 101. It is, after date night, my favorite night of the week. Life 101 for you old sovereign grace folks is our church's version of Alpha. It's a place to invite unbelievers or maybe new believers seeking to grow in their faith. Guests arrive and are greeted warmly by some members from our church. They'll then join a table of six to ten people, eat a nice dinner, hear a talk on who Jesus is and afterwards a table leader will lead a discussion. Their are a couple of things I love about Life 101. One is seeing people from our church giving up a night to serve others. It can often be a family event. Some teens and singles serve in childcare, we have table servers, greeters and of course as I mentioned earlier table leaders. In many ways it reminds me of when Chris and I planted a church. To see members come and take ownership of life 101 and evangelize to their friends is well very refreshing!

Chris and I like to attend but we also like to invite. We haven't always had success in our invitation. Last life 101 class we invited our neighbors. Out of the three sets we invited the one we thought was least likely to come, came. They finshed the class and now are attending the church regularly and continue to seek and ask questions about Jesus. So this class we again invited our other neighbors. One set we've invitied four or five times. I'm so thankful for my husband who is persistent. Chris again invited him Monday and last night he came. He is not a believer but is very open and curious about Christianity. He sat with Chris and after the class asked him what we mean when we say "we are saved". Chris had a great discussion with him and he said next week he is going to bring his family! Also last night my aunt who I invited came for the first time and brought her niece and nephew! So Chris sat with our neighbor at one table and I sat with my aunt and her guests at another. During the message I was praising God for the miracle of salvation! So many different faces in the room, many not saved but in God's sovereignty came last night and heard the gospel. Seeds were planted and I pray that God will do HIS saving work in their life!

Trevor's First Swim Lesson

Today was Trevor's first swim lesson at the swim school. We have been blessed to have our good friend Becky Ross as a teacher. She started teaching Taylor at age two and Taylor been going on and off since. She is doing AMAZING by the way. She has mastered freestyle, backstroke getting their with butterfly and is starting to learn breaststroke! Why so young you ask? Well in AZ there are pools everywhere (including my parents house) and sadly all summer long you hear about drowning after drowning. So we view it as a survival skill. And really up until age four survival skills are all they are taught. Another reason we picked swimming over other sports is because Chris swam all throughout high school and went to college with a swimming scholarship. So you never know it could be in their blood! I for the record swam competively too when I was young but once I hit high school the 5am practice was too much. I still dislike 5am :-)

Taylor & Trevor are completely opposite in almost every way and it's no different when it comes to the pool. We enrolled Taylor because she was scared to death of the pool. If she ever feel in she would completely freak out and drown. Trevor on the other hand has NO fear and will jump in a pool at any given opportunity! Did I mention my parents have a pool...
Ok so here's some pictures from the morning.





doesn't look to bad huh? Well once he figured out it wasn't going to be all fun & games he screamed the entire lesson! I mean screamed at the top of his lungs. And guess what his teacher Becky told me afterwards... he'll be way easier to teach then Taylor! Haha! Thank you Becky for putting up with mine and countless others crying children!

My New Friend-edited

Meet my new friend...




An evenflo gate! We've been looking for a gate wide enough to fit our walls for awhile now! None of the ones at babies- r -us or target worked. We gave up hope until a month ago when we visited Chris' brother and wife (thx- Jeff & Brandy) and saw a gate at their house. They gave us this website and we were off and running. It arrived a few days ago and I LOVE it! It helps keep Trevor out of trouble. Well some trouble...Trevor's a smart boy and if he can't get into trouble in the kitchen and living room he'll find it elsewhere. Since the new gate he has been more curious about what's behind closed doos. I've found him in the bathroom playing in the toliet, in my bedroom smearing lipstick everywhere. Oh yeah and he found some crayons in Taylor's room and, no he didn't color with it, he ate it! So I've concluded that I need not only one gate but a few... maybe a big playard to coral him in all day :-)

trev, as you can see, is not to fond of the gate...


often I'll find him on the other side saying "up, please" again & again. It helps that he's so darn cute!!!

Are you ready to meet God?

Walking out of his father's hospital room where just moments earlier his father passed away, John Piper(pastor,author,speaker), asks a young man " Are you ready to meet God?"

I once heard in a sermon that the statistics are quite surprising when it comes to death. 100 out or 100 people will die! Yet it is so easy to go about our days forgetting the inevitable. We will all stand before a holy judge one day. William S.H. Piper was ready to face his maker. He has lived a God glorifying, fearing life and left behind an incredible legacy. John Piper penned a journal entry the night his father died and has humbly shared it on his blog. Here is a taste of what you'll find:

Tuesday, March 6, 2007. 2 a.m.

The big hospital clock in room 4326 of Greenville Memorial Hospital said, with both hands straight up, midnight. Daddy had just taken his last breath. My watch said 12:01, March 6, 2007.

I had slept a little since his last morphine shot at ten. One ear sleeping, one on the breathing. At 11:45, I awoke. The breaths were coming more frequently and were very shallow. I will not sleep again, I thought. For ten minutes, I prayed aloud into his left ear with Bible texts and pleadings to Jesus to come and take him. I had made this case before, and this time felt an unusual sense of partnership with Daddy as I pressed on the Lord to relieve this warrior of his burden.

I finished and lay down. Good. Thank you, Lord. It will not be long. And, grace upon grace, hundreds of prayers are being answered: He is not choking. The gurgling that threatened to spill over and drown him in the afternoon had sunk deep, and now there was simple clear air, shorter and shorter. I listened from where I lay next to him on a foldout chair.

That’s it. I rose and waited. Will he breathe again? Nothing. Fifteen or twenty seconds, and then a gasp. I was told to expect these false endings. But it was not false. The gasp was the first of two. But no more breaths. I waited, watching. No facial expressions. His face had frozen in place hours before. One more jerk. That was all. Perhaps an eyebrow twitch a moment later. Nothing more.

for the rest of the entry go here

Let Piper's question be asked of you today: Are you ready to meet God?

New Recipe For The Weekend

My mom has a heart problem and for the past few years has been restricted to a low salt diet. Poor thing! It's not easy being on a low sodium diet- you start to see how much salt is really in the everyday foods we eat. But not willing to be defeated she has researched and come up with some amazing, healthy, new reciepes! This is a recent favorite of mine from their house that has become a favorite in our house as well.

Spaghetti with Wild Mushroom Sauce

1 T olive oil
1 C sliced mushrooms ( we use the cremini mushrooms from Trader Joes)
1/3 C chopped onion (can use any type but I like the sweet onion)
1 med clove of garlic
14.5 ounce can no salt diced tomatoes undrained
1/2 C water
1 T brown sugar
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/8 ts pepper
6 ounce can no salt tomato paste
1/8 tsp cayenne (opt)
1/2 can of small tomato sauce

Heat a large nonstick skillet over med. high. Add oil swirl to coat bottom, cook mushrooms, onion and garlic for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in remaining sauce ingredients. Simmer covered for 1 to 2 hrs, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf before serving.

* for meat lovers this goes great with Meatballs. But even my husband, who eats meat with everything, loves this recipe on it's own!

My Tax Rap Video

An old friend of Chris & I's, James, did this video for a Turbo Tax rap contest. We got a kick out it and hey if you vote for him he can win 25,000 dollars! I think he said if he won he'd share the money with those who voted for him.... right James?

Give it five stars here...