John is now able to go with us - yippee!!
We will likely leave mid-morning Thursday.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Heading North
Quick note to let y'all know that the kids and I will be heading north to PA for a few days. We are all looking forward to catching up with family and friends.
Please pray for our travels and for John as he stays here in the south.
Please pray for our travels and for John as he stays here in the south.
Monday, February 25, 2008
"Gardening"
A couple of weeks ago, I felt like all I was doing all day everyday was "correcting" my children. As much as I hate to admit it, many of my sentences would begin with "for the 100th time...could you please do this or that (or don't do this or that)..." By the end of the day, we were all frustrated. John would come home and say "do you need to go for a jog?" This is my litmus test that I am not having a very good attitude! I know I am exceptionally bad when he adds "without the dogs?"!! On these jogs, I would tell the Lord that I don't want to be this way - I want to be free to enjoy my kids, with correction just being part of the picture.
He brought to my mind the image of gardening...correcting is sorting of like pulling the weeds, or pruning the plants. If that is all that I do, my "garden" will not flourish. Gardens also need water and sunlight to grow - they need love, tender care, and nurturing to flourish. I was also reminded that weeding and pruning are necessary elements, but they are not the main needs for a garden. Without water and sunlight, nothing will have a chance to grow.
This kind of "gardening" can be applied to our children, workplace, relationship with others, etc. May we allow Jesus to shine through us to be a drink of water for a thirsty soul or a ray of sunshine for someone who needs hope. I also need to be more careful when and where I pull the weeds and how I prune.
Thanks for tuning in...
Shirley
He brought to my mind the image of gardening...correcting is sorting of like pulling the weeds, or pruning the plants. If that is all that I do, my "garden" will not flourish. Gardens also need water and sunlight to grow - they need love, tender care, and nurturing to flourish. I was also reminded that weeding and pruning are necessary elements, but they are not the main needs for a garden. Without water and sunlight, nothing will have a chance to grow.
This kind of "gardening" can be applied to our children, workplace, relationship with others, etc. May we allow Jesus to shine through us to be a drink of water for a thirsty soul or a ray of sunshine for someone who needs hope. I also need to be more careful when and where I pull the weeds and how I prune.
Thanks for tuning in...
Shirley
Friday, February 22, 2008
Our property
Pictures from our first trip onto "our" property. We had a lot of fun - playing in the dirt, cleaning up the "driveway", etc. I like sunsets, so my next task is to modify a photo of the sunset that night and put it as my header. I am learning all kinds of blog stuff, so bear with me :) I posted twice today...see post below for BAMA'isms.
Phillipians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ
Thanks and welcome!
Welcome, all you mommaroar fans - she is incredibly talented, not? Thanks mommaroar for all of your encouargement (she got me started blogging) and help!
A note about BAMA'isms - I just want to make it clear that I am not poking fun at these dear people. We have experienced a very warm welcome from extremely friendly, helpful and giving people here in Alabama. We have often been overwhelmed by their kindnesses. I can truly learn a lot from their "southern hospitality".
"Make a picture" - many of you were right - it is simply what I know of as "take a picture". Someone asked me to "make their picture" when we first arrived and it took me a second to figure out what they were asking me!
Ok - here are a couple more that are probably more obvious. What is a "buggy"? What is a "fly-flapper"?
As mommaroar suggested, I will have to put some from the west and east coast, as well ;)
S
A note about BAMA'isms - I just want to make it clear that I am not poking fun at these dear people. We have experienced a very warm welcome from extremely friendly, helpful and giving people here in Alabama. We have often been overwhelmed by their kindnesses. I can truly learn a lot from their "southern hospitality".
"Make a picture" - many of you were right - it is simply what I know of as "take a picture". Someone asked me to "make their picture" when we first arrived and it took me a second to figure out what they were asking me!
Ok - here are a couple more that are probably more obvious. What is a "buggy"? What is a "fly-flapper"?
As mommaroar suggested, I will have to put some from the west and east coast, as well ;)
S
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Uneventful closing!
We prayed for an uneventful closing and that is what we had. Praise the Lord!
"Roll a yard" refers to what I know as "tp'ing" someone's yard and/or house (not that I ever was involved in that kind of mischief :) - it is basically wasting a whole lot of toilet paper (unused kind) on trees, cars, mailboxes, etc. for some unsuspecting homeowner who normally has a teenage child in the home...
Here's another one that I have only heard in Alabama..."make a picture". Any ideas?
You know, I was thinking about it and I am not sure it is really fair to say that they are "Alabama'isms" - it is only that Alabama is the first place that I have heard them. I had the poor neighbor boy confused offering him a "soda" and "pop". He knows these items as "coke" - doesn't matter if it is pepsi, root beer, etc.
Blessings!
S
"Roll a yard" refers to what I know as "tp'ing" someone's yard and/or house (not that I ever was involved in that kind of mischief :) - it is basically wasting a whole lot of toilet paper (unused kind) on trees, cars, mailboxes, etc. for some unsuspecting homeowner who normally has a teenage child in the home...
Here's another one that I have only heard in Alabama..."make a picture". Any ideas?
You know, I was thinking about it and I am not sure it is really fair to say that they are "Alabama'isms" - it is only that Alabama is the first place that I have heard them. I had the poor neighbor boy confused offering him a "soda" and "pop". He knows these items as "coke" - doesn't matter if it is pepsi, root beer, etc.
Blessings!
S
Monday, February 18, 2008
Update
Thought I should do a little update:
- Chaplain will be back this week - praise the Lord for his full recovery from his heart atack. John will be able to go back to ministering to the guys more. Pray for a smooth transition and for Chaplain to have the strength and energy for each day.
- Closing date for the property we are purchasing is tomorrow (Tuesday, February 19th)!! Then, the real fun begins :)
- Pray for safety as John begins taking down trees with a chainsaw. Another example of our Lord's perfect care of us ... when we were at our home group yesterday, we asked for prayer for safety and one of the members up and gave John a pair of protective chaps and a helmet.
- We bought the kids each a kid-sized shovel to "help" us dig. I'll have to post pictures of them with their shovels and gloves! Too cute!
- We met the neighbor boy over the weekend - sweet kid with a LOT of energy. He will be 12 this week. We are looking forward to loving on him with the love of Jesus!
- There are still a lot of deer around. We see them pretty frequently. We also see wild turkeys - it is crazy to see them fly!
- On a sad note, Frankie succumbed to the wild. He disappeared a couple of weeks ago and no one has seen him since. He was a really sweet cat. Lilly still looks for him every time the door opens.
- I'll have to post some "Alabama-ism's" sometime...just to get you started, I learned a new one yesterday "roll a yard". Any guesses as to what it means?
Blessings,
S
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
- Chaplain will be back this week - praise the Lord for his full recovery from his heart atack. John will be able to go back to ministering to the guys more. Pray for a smooth transition and for Chaplain to have the strength and energy for each day.
- Closing date for the property we are purchasing is tomorrow (Tuesday, February 19th)!! Then, the real fun begins :)
- Pray for safety as John begins taking down trees with a chainsaw. Another example of our Lord's perfect care of us ... when we were at our home group yesterday, we asked for prayer for safety and one of the members up and gave John a pair of protective chaps and a helmet.
- We bought the kids each a kid-sized shovel to "help" us dig. I'll have to post pictures of them with their shovels and gloves! Too cute!
- We met the neighbor boy over the weekend - sweet kid with a LOT of energy. He will be 12 this week. We are looking forward to loving on him with the love of Jesus!
- There are still a lot of deer around. We see them pretty frequently. We also see wild turkeys - it is crazy to see them fly!
- On a sad note, Frankie succumbed to the wild. He disappeared a couple of weeks ago and no one has seen him since. He was a really sweet cat. Lilly still looks for him every time the door opens.
- I'll have to post some "Alabama-ism's" sometime...just to get you started, I learned a new one yesterday "roll a yard". Any guesses as to what it means?
Blessings,
S
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Gatlinburg
We had a wonderful time last weekend on our trip to Gatlinburg, TN. We went with our home group from church and stayed at a very nice cabin. We were privileged to sleep in a room that had a plexiglas ceiling where we could see the stars! I think the group honored us with that room since we have been sleeping in a camping trailer for 5 months!
Sunday on the way home, we found a Go-Kart track in Pigeon Forge (not hard to do, as about every other building is a Go-Kart track!). Hadden rode with Daddy and Savannah rode with Mommy. They both loved it. Savannah kept encouraging Mommy to "go faster"!
We saw a total of 19 deer along our drive - this one was an older buck who was not very afraid of people.
We had a very nice, relaxing weekend enjoying God's creation!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Ephesians 3:16-21
Savannah drew a picture the other day. Nothing new - she is always making pictures to give to someone. However, this one was different than her usual pictures, so I took a closer look. She had 3 crosses with a heart between each 2. The hearts then had colorful "roots" coming out the bottom. There were also two "I love you!"'s on the page. The words that came to mind were "rooted and established in love" - I had to look up the reference and found that the surrounding passage is beautiful. There is a LOT of very cool truth in ths passage alone - sometimes I need to slow down and savor God's word long enough to listen to what it truly says.
Ephesians 3:16-21
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Maybe it was just another picture...but it spoke to me. I have been struggling lately with feeling a lack of purpose, even though in my heart I know that being a wife and mother is a very high calling. Our culture just does not seem to value the place of wife and mother. In that, the enemy likes to make me feel worthless and without value. I was calling out to the Lord asking Him to show me how much He loves me. I feel like he did with this picture and reminder of His infinite love for us through these amazing verses.
I hope you enjoy them - may you be reminded of how much He loves you, too, through these verses!
Ephesians 3:16-21
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Maybe it was just another picture...but it spoke to me. I have been struggling lately with feeling a lack of purpose, even though in my heart I know that being a wife and mother is a very high calling. Our culture just does not seem to value the place of wife and mother. In that, the enemy likes to make me feel worthless and without value. I was calling out to the Lord asking Him to show me how much He loves me. I feel like he did with this picture and reminder of His infinite love for us through these amazing verses.
I hope you enjoy them - may you be reminded of how much He loves you, too, through these verses!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Pictures
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| September 2007 - Noccalula "Trickle" |
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| December 2007 - Noccalula Falls |
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| February 2008 - Grandpa & Beulah visit |
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| View from behind the falls |
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| Frankie terrorizing the dogs! |
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| "Charlie Brown" tree - Christmas 2007 |
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| Christmas lights near Mobile |
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| Snow in Alabama!! |
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| Chimney Rock - Feb 2008 |
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| Chimney Rock - Feb 2008 |
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