Mouthful
While taking care of five children for an evening, I turned from heating their dinner on the stove to find the youngest had filled her mouth with so many jellybeans that she couldn’t close it. She began to cry till her older brother compassionately insisted, “C’mon Gianna, roll with the punches!”
Planning Ahead
Two neighbor girls came to our door one summer afternoon, both five, with a tray of assorted beads, stones and shining trinkets. They asked if we wanted to buy any for the low cost of a nickel apiece. When asked what they were saving for anything special one responded, “Oh yes! We’re saving up for college!”
I’m Sorry?
My mother always taught us that to say “I’m sorry” should also mean “I won’t do it again”. One Sunday after the evening service, my mother and sister (age three at the time) were walking out to the parking lot when a friend offered her a piece of candy. “Now, what do you say, Hannah?” my mother prompted. She thought for a moment, sorting through her three-year-old list of social graces and then exclaimed, “I won’t do it again!”
A farm near our house lets you pick your own berries for $1.50 per pound. After spending a good portion of the morning filling our baskets out in the sun we returned with about three boxes and boiled half of them into strawberry jam; the rest are frozen for later use on pancakes, ice-cream, shortcake and such. We (sadly) received our jam education off of youtube, and then adapted it for a larger batch. 24 jars and counting…
Old Glory: A lone banner unfurls in the summer evening breeze, its vibrant stars and stripes emblematic of the dreams of the brave and free. Over two-hundred years of stories are buried in its folds: tales of patriotism and pride, heroism and self-sacrifice. Gazing at this beautiful symbol of liberty, I can’t help but take a moment to reflect on the lives of the ones who gave of themselves to make the dream a reality. The banner has flown amidst the red glare of rockets, as sings our National Anthem, and above soldiers huddled shivering in the trenches across the sea. They wonder if they will ever see their families and homeland again, but they hold on in courage and hope, for above them flying brightly against the pallid, gray sky Old Glory yet waves.
I scribbled down the above few lines as I passed a single American flag waving and glowing in the evening sunlight. This fourth of July, as always, I am mindful of the blessings and freedoms I have and those who have worked, given, fought and in particular died for them. I’ve always had a pretty deep admiration for our men in uniform -from my cousin’s 19-year-old husband stationed in Japan to the solemn but still kind veterans at the VA Hospital we visited last spring. Many youths of this generation will become materially successful, wealthy and affluent, others may gain notoriety having their faces plastered all over People and US. Another percentage have made the choice to serve and protect our freedom and even the freedom of the very ones who would spit in their faces. This I see as a very similar shadow of the sacrificial example set by the One who gave His life that we might receive redemption and eternal life. Today, I take a moment to remember the fallen heros of the past, and thank (as best I can do on my little blog) several young men within my own circle who have made the choice to serve as well: two enlisting, two in boot camp, a family member in Japan and another dear friend in Iraq. My thoughts are towards them, and my heart is full deep thanks for My Savior, who has given me an even greater, everlasting freedom.
Have a wonderful Independence Day and remember to thank your soldiers!
Here’s another old one that I dug out of the archives and decided to type…
Well the harvest moon was glistening
off of Parker’s Lake again and
I savored it alone without companion or friend
The fragile shades of summer
floated slowly to the ground
-a festival of dancers clad in
yellow, orange and brown
The smell was quite intriguing,
a mix of earth and rain,
but in the scene I took no joy
as I wallowed in my pain
All of my attention
was solely fixed on me
-on what it was I wanted,
and what could never be
The distant stars above me shone
a message that I shunned,
“We don’t revolve around you, girl,
we all obey the Son!”
My thoughts began to gather
like a late November storm
as each one took on character
and sculpted up a form
I pushed both pride and shame aside
to look into my soul
-to see what made this void inside,
a room closed up and cold
What I saw astonished me
and brought me to the floor
The mercy tree inside of me
was bearing fruit no more
The glowing amber flame was dimmed
-the presence of the Lord
The windows where I watch the world
were shut and nailed with boards
I dusted out the crevices
I’d filled with flaky clay
-the cheaper, superficial things
that hit like spam each day
In all these little masquerades,
depicted I a clown
My face evinced a smile
while within lay a frown
Empty, stripped before You
was I like the winter trees
-broken, blackened, scraggly sticks
all barren of their leaves
The layers never fooled You though,
You always saw right through,
and let me err and fall a while
till I came back to You
Your love is quite unfathomable
There’s no one else I’ve known
In all my pride and wretchedness
You yet called me Your own
I love the way your Spirit stirs
a wind inside my heart
You lift me up and lead me on
as seas before me part
You meet me at the riverbank
and that’s where I rejoice
along with all the praising trees
who clap to hear Your voice
The red-rose flames of dawn appear
and settle on my face,
and with them He assures again
that morning brings His Grace
I wanted to share an excerpt of today’s thought from the updated edition of My Utmost For His Highest, by Oswald Chambers (edited by James Reimann). It was one of those heart-pricking moments as he asks whether we are following Christ or simply a cause.
Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of the people-the saving of the people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father.
There are so many good things a person could do, but all my efforts are futile if I am not living in obedience to the Lord. It was just good to be reminded again that He is primarily interested in my heart and the surrendering of my own desires to His will.
I apologize for my long posting break. Life happens…
Anyway, today is my one year bloggy birthday! LCQ has now been around for a year. So to commemorate today I have a compiled a list of some of the strangest search terms resulting in the discovery of this blog:
Plucking Chicken (no idea where this came from) Water your words
Lady Napkins Clip
Lady Carmen + feet (one of my favorite) Ice luminaries FAST
As you sit on the swing do you like being
I don’t like the virtuous woman (*sniff* I’m sorry to hear this…) My eyes are dry lady
Quixote for gym floor music
Carmen Glorie leaves Alex (I think you were looking for the People site) Walking her home wikipedia (how does one search with intentions of using wiki and end up here?) Hillsong sound system
Kids ice carmen
lady carmen wee one
white substance destroys family (we all wish my posts were that exciting) Carmen my dad wants his computer back (uh, yeah, I’ll get to that?) hodgepodge in sentence (well that’s everything I write, basically) Quixote Brazilian writer
“from the philippines”
Salvador lady (I’m seeing a pattern) songs with word Quixote (where!?!? I want to hear it!) ice carmen for kids (again? Oh my, that sounds like a cold human treat in a cone! :/ )
A few other interesting facts:
Other than the search term Lady Carmen or the like, the most popular searchings were related to Distortion of Beauty, sunsets, apples (or anything that has to do with apples such as orchards, cider and trees). Don’t ask why… I don’t remember ever posting anything about apples. Now I’m sure I will be getting even more apple traffic as a result of this post. Hmmm… well I will try to scare up a message needing to be heard by apple lovers and orchard owners alike.
I also got a lot of traffic by people searching for single words in Spanish… such as mucho, Dios, Biblia, etc. You would never see a little WordPress blog after searching for a word such as much, God or Bible in English. I guess the amount of content in Spanish is just that much less. Very interesting…
Day one of my summer occupation: Operating on a good four hours of sleep, I spent the better part of the day ripping sod out of the earth, driving a tractor, covering myself in paint, burning to a crisp and loving every minute of it!
-my favorite toy of the day, closely followed by an amazing, little Japanese weeding sickle
Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by the house (which I saw for the first time minus a foot of snow). The hillside, hedged in by ready-to-bloom lilacs, borders several acres of open fields. *lots of smiles*
-a ring of wood anemone found in the sylvan depths of our lot
-a driveway which, in the winter, rivals the effects of a buttered waterslide
-the driveway’s redeeming beauty
-that’s where we do laundry
…just kiddin’. This pond was made for looking.
So how many of these amazing feats have you accomplished?
I lose, scoring about eight out of ten on the Reese’s test (and that’s only if learning from a young age that daily consumption of sugar and food-coloring for breakfast stifles creativity and intellectual competence is considered ” a discovery”). It’s not the most inspirational challenge, but I must say I’d be throughly impressed with anyone who manages #12. Fearing they’d be unable to compete with the new Reese’s Puffs “hard things” challenge, the Rebelution threatened to shut down this morning. Fortunately, this threat was simply a mean attempt at #11 on the checklist.
Oh boy… I still can’t believe I’ve found the gumption to publicize this, but here is my Proverbs 31 poem for Mother’s Day. Be merciful, I was a wee one when I wrote it…
If you searched every home
all the days of your life
every country and town
you might find such a wife
You will know right away
when you find her at last
not by color or tongue
or her Bloomingdale’s class
Just a glance in her eyes
they are sharp to survey
the affairs of the home
every deed: work and play
Every morn’ she’ll arise
by the first rays of light
in the glow of a lamp
working yet in the night
She dresses her family
in purple and rose,
linen and fleece
they stay warm when it snows
A well of instruction flows
out from her lips;
she brings food from afar
like the grand merchant ships
Her skin has turned dark from
her toil in the sun
-arms strong for her tasks
seeing each one is done
There are kind words of wisdom
on the tip of her tongue;
she s respect
for her neighbors and young
Her husband is honored
in his seat with the wise
because they’ve all heard
of his diligent wife
He praises her trust
and her kids bless her too
Well, I’ve found such a mom
…living under my roof!
24 jars and counting…
