…was July 27, and I completely overlooked it!
I did think about it a few weeks ago, but forgot it again.
In the past I’ve had a giveaway to mark the occasion, but with getting ready to move this week, I think I’ll refrain.
My very first post is here. Since then I’ve had 2,002 posts, 20, 163 comments, and 74, 896 spam comments. 🙂
It’s been a very fun, learning, stretching, rewarding four years, and Lord willing, I plan to continue! Thanks to you for coming by. You’re a blessing to me!
Here are a few great posts seen ’round the web lately:
7 Things I Should Have Taught My Sons, HT to Lori. With a couple of them leaving the nest, I know I am going to think of such things, too.
Just Do Something, HT to Sharper Iron, on the subject of making a difference at church. Some ideas listed: “Give people the benefit of the doubt. Say ‘hi’ to the teen-ager no one notices. Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.”
The Secret to a Husband’s Love, Happy Marriage, HT to Lizzie.
Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies. Mmmmmm…
I have seen this site mentioned in several places: I Write Like, where you insert text of something you’ve written and it supposedly analyzes what author your writing is similar to. So I tried a few of my old posts.
When I tried The Storm and the Rainbow I got:
I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!
Umm — I think I’m a far cry from The Bard!
When I tried Cakes Are My Culinary Waterloo I got:
…whom I had never heard of.
When I tried Encouragement For Mothers of Young Children, I got:
So either I am a very versatile writer, or…the system needs tweaking. Probably the latter. 🙂 But it is fun to play with.
Susanne at Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday’s Fave Five so we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God gives. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
Some of my favorites from this past week:
1. We had the closing for our new house in TN on Monday! That was exciting, plus it was nice to actually see it again. Though I am having mixed emotions — the excitement of the new place and the sadness at leaving the oldest kids behind — we’re already planning the first visits!
2. Finding more “treasures” in cleaning out boxes. One was a notebook of angst-filled teen-age poetry. I haven’t had time to go through it yet, but I am glad to have found it, especially since it wasn’t where I thought it was! Another was a newspaper clipping of a column I wrote in a local small neighborhood newspaper for our school when I was in 11th or 12th grade. My speech teacher knew someone involved with that paper and connected me to that opportunity. I had forgotten about it, and since I was throwing away most things that looked like newspaper clippings (because most of them were recipes or articles that I’ve lived without for all these years now), I was glad I spotted that without throwing at away. Another was a note from the business office of my college that someone had put $500 on my school account back then — that was a special reminder of a special blessing.
3. A good, soaking rain. We’ve needed it and had sprinkles here and there, but finally got a good rain in our area this week.
4. Scheduling the movers for next week. I mentioned a few days ago that in my husband’s preliminary conversations with them, it didn’t look like they could come in the time frame we wanted, but it all worked out well.
5. Helpful kids. I’ve had to call on each of them for various kinds of help — moving boxes, sorting through things, computer help, making goodies for Jesse’s party tomorrow, etc., and they’ve all graciously been willing to pitch in wherever needed.
I don’t know if I will be here for FFF next week — we’ll be in the midst of moving, and I don’t know when the computer will be set up and operational. Hopefully as soon as possible!
Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.
The question for this week is:
Did your family attend church when you were growing up? What are your earliest memories of church? Did you attend VBS (Vacation Bible School) when you were young? Sunday School? Other church activities? Was faith a Sunday-only thing or did it impact your life and the things you did? If faith and church were not a part of your growing-up years, when and how did you begin and what drew you to God?
I did not grow up in a Christian home. My father never went to church then, and my mother only occasionally did. My mother’s sister and father attended a Lutheran church, and my parents let me attend with them. I do remember learning basic truths and Bible stories and learning in a general way that Jesus Christ died for my sins, but how to actually believe in a way to know that one was a Christian was kind of nebulous idea of having faith of some kind. I don’t remember it ever being brought to a personal level that I as an individual needed to repent of my own sins and trust Christ as my own Savior.
I do remember enjoying Sunday School and VBS. I enjoyed the crafts, singing, activities, Bible stories, and cookies and Kool-aid. 🙂 I only have a few specific memories: one was a craft we made that involved putting one glass upside down over another one with flowers inside and gluing it. I thought it was so pretty and gave it to my grandmother. I do remember gluing macaroni to a box and spray-painting it gold, but I don’t remember if that was VBS or Girl Scouts (what was the deal with macaroni crafts back then?!) I remember hearing in Sunday School teaching on the verse “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6: 24-26) and thinking at the time that that was ridiculous. Money problems were frequent at our house, and I thought, how could you not worry about it? I had a lot to learn about faith, and these verses became precious to me in college years and beyond. I also remember feeling bad one time that I had nothing to put in the offering, so I drew or wrote something on a piece of paper — I can’t remember if it was a drawing of money or an IOU of some sort — and put it in when the offering plate was passed. But my cousin’s grandmother — the one on the other side of her family through which we were not related — was a very well-to-do and proper lady and took my piece of paper out. That made me so sad, that I had given the only thing I could, and it wasn’t deemed acceptable. As an adult looking back, I think the ushers would probably have gotten a kick out of finding that in the offering.
When I was in about the third grade, my best friend at the time invited me to revival services at her Baptist church. My parents did not let me go to every religious event I was invited to (thankfully!), but my dad’s folks were Baptist on one side and Methodist on the other, and my mom’s, as I mentioned, were Lutheran, so they usually let me go to those churches if asked. On the second or third night I attended, the pastor was talking about being “saved.” My friend and another of her friends urged me to go forward at the invitation at the end of the service, so I did, but in later years I couldn’t remember what was said or prayed or who I even talked to.
So I struggled for many years with exactly where I stood with the Lord, and it wasn’t really settled until I was about 17. I’ve told this in more detail in my testimony. Then I still struggled with assurance for many years, but I am happy to say I am at rest in Him now.
As far as faith impacting daily life, my parents had something of a “God-fearing” upbringing, and though neither of them wanted to bring their lives under God’s influence and authority at that time, they wanted their children to be taught about Him and to “do right” (my dad did come to salvation later in his 60s: I have told his story here. Though my mom did not make a clear and open profession, I have reason to hope she believed as well, as I discussed here.) My dad’s two biggest issues were respect and obedience, and I think that and what religious training I did have gave me a good foundation and prepared me for learning more later on. I did have kind of an awe and respect and a childish affection for the Lord, but without a lot of discernment: if anyone from mentioned God, I thought that was so neat, not realizing that not everyone who talks about Him knows Him. I am so glad God protected me from cultist influences when I was vulnerable and naive enough to probably have been taken in by them.
I had thought my mother’s family has always been Lutheran, but a few years ago my aunt told me that her father, my grandfather, had been raised by an uncle who was a “circuit-riding preacher” (like Sheffey, for those familiar with him), and my grandfather had helped him in some of his campaigns when he was a boy. That was neat to learn about. I hadn’t thought I had ancestors who prayed for me beyond my own grandparents, so it’s neat to think that maybe even further back there were relatives who knew the Lord and prayed for their descendants. It will be nice to meet them in heaven!
I won Chosen Ones, the first book in the Aedyn Chronicles by Alister McGrath, from Quilly‘s contest (thank you again, Quilly!)
The book is youth fiction, targeted for ages 9-12, but I think readers beyond that age group would enjoy it.
The story involves two young teen-age siblings who go to visit their grandparents and discover a portal to a mysterious world in their grandparents’ back yard, and in this new world — or, actually a very old world — things seem to be very wrong: what was once a beautiful place is in ruins and people are enslaved by a trio of evils lords, and these young people who stumble into it are surprised to discover that they are apparently the chosen ones who are supposed to do something about it.
Sound familiar? Yes, it is similar in many ways to the Narnia series, though I don’t believe McGrath intended to copy C. S. Lewis: there are just similar elements in this genre. In fact, at first I was a little bored because it didn’t seem original, but after the young people, Peter and Julia, got involved in their particular quest, I was drawn into the story.
Readers familiar with Biblical history will recognize the allegorical content: Marcus representing Moses, the Day of Remembrance with its special feast symbolizing the Passover, etc.
Though the book doesn’t have the scope and breadth and depth of Narnia, but it is shorter and very readable and a good story in itself. Besides the particular quest the young people face, I liked the character development and their growth through the particular hurdles they had to face.
There are places that could have used a little more “umph” (I would have expected more of a crisis of confidence with a “I’m just a kid, what do they expect from me?!” moment), and a couple of things that didn’t makes sense to me (one was a “talent” that Julia discovers which she can’t seem to summon at will but which seems to come when needed, I can see some spiritual parallels there).
But overall I am happy to recommend the book. If you read it, please come back to let me know what you think.
You can get a peek inside at several pages of the book here. I loved the cover art by illustrator Voytek Nowakowski and the “old world” feel to the pages and illustrations.
(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
I was going to discuss one of the books I’ve finished recently, but decided I’d rather just chat instead. 🙂
We closed on our new house in TN Monday. That was exciting. A bit scary — I am glad my husband had a head for what all those papers we signed were for. But still exciting. We went to the new house for the walk-through beforehand and then went back afterward. It was only my second time to be actually in it, though my husband has been in it more, so I enjoyed seeing it, getting a better feel for how things were laid out, planning where to put things, etc.
But even though I’ve known we were going to move for months now, reality really started to sink in as we drove around the new area. We really are going to do this!
It’s such an odd mixture of emotions. Excitement about the house, the new church, and the readiness for a change in many ways. Sadness over losing the proximity to Jeremy, Jason, Mittu and friends here. And something I can’t find quite the word for — not disorientation, exactly, but that uncomfortable feeling you have when moving from what’s familiar to having to find new stores, places to eat, doctors, etc., and even finding things in the new house when you knew where they were for twelve years on the old house. I know that last feeling will dissipate over time as we get adjusted to a new area.
People keep asking us how packing is going, but we really haven’t done much packing. Jim’s company will pay for movers who are supposed to come this Friday for just a walk-through to see what they need to move, etc. We’ve had movers before, and it is nice to have someone else pack everything up — each time before they’ve been pretty good about labeling, at least the room the boxes came from if nothing else. So what we’ve mostly been doing is sorting through things to throw away or donate what we don’t want to keep plus just wrapping up the details of life here (which is a lot more involved than it sounds!), getting the various ministry loose ends wrapped up and ready to pass on to someone else, attending to details for life there, like Jesse’s school registration and paperwork, ordering school uniforms, etc. Something I hadn’t anticipated needing to do is make various doctor visits. For Jim’s mom to be able to go right in to the assisted living place when we move her there, she needed to see a doctor and have one of the forms from the new place filled out by him, so we did that last week, then had to go back in two days for the required TB test to be checked. Plus we need to take her to the audiologist to have her hearing aid checked and tuned up before leaving. I was going to try to just get my prescriptions refilled long enough to last until we found a doctor there but decided I probably should go ahead and see my doctor one last time before leaving. She does need to check blood pressure and heart rhythm in relation to one of the medications every now and then, and it’s been a while since she’s done that. Then Jesse’s school requires new students to have a physical, but they’ll accept a sports physical for that, so we decided to do that with the doctor he sees here — but then just realized last week that his regular doctor is out of the country and will be through next week. So I need to try to get him in to see another doctor friend we know.
We may have a snafu with the movers, though: Jim wanted to wait til we actually closed on the house before we talked with movers, so he made some calls yesterday. The original plan was to pack up our stuff Wednesday and Thursday next week with the movers, then Friday get a U-Haul to move Jason and Mittu’s stuff here and then Grandma’s stuff from her room, and then set off for TN. But many of the ones we called said they come to actually start moving a week from the walk-through — which would be next Friday — so we’ll have to see how that will all work out.
Jim is dealing with working out all of that plus getting utilities and such turned on in our name there plus all the details for his mom — on top of a more than full-time job. I don’t know how his head keeps from exploding.
We did see his mom’s room while we were there Monday. I had been hoping we could arrange it much like her room is here — I mean, after all, most of those rooms should be pretty much the same, right? But the room there is laid out completely differently. I know she’ll get adjusted to it in time just as she did here, but I feel for her in getting used to a new place and people. The staff there did say they stick really close to new residents to help them get adjusted, remember where their room and the dining area is, etc.
Jim went with Jeremy to RI to look at apartments last week. The Internet is SUCH a big help in that kind of thing — Jeremy was able to do a lot of preliminary research ahead of time. He found one he likes, and he seems to really like the area.
I think reality is setting in for Jesse, too. Though he’d rather stay here, he’s maintained a pretty good attitude about moving, but now that it is getting closer, he’s already missing his friends and school. We’re having a party for him this Sat. with kids from his class for a last hurrah and good-bye, which will be fun but bittersweet, I’m sure.
So…I guess I’d better stop rambling and get back to some of those details. I so appreciate your interest, care, and prayers!
The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.
The books I completed in July are:
I just started Prints Charming by Rebeca Seitz, and I am not sure what I will pick up next, but on my TBR shelf waiting for me are Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers, Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs, Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper, and 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith by Warren Wiersbe.
You can visit other nightstands and share what’s on yours at 5 Minutes For Books.
Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.
Just a further note — if you’ve posted a quote on your blog this past week, feel free to link it here as well. You don’t have to save it for Mondays. 
And please do read and comment even if you’re not posting quotes.
Here are a few I’ve read in various places:
From Elisabeth Elliot’s e-mail devotional, this one taken from a chapter titled “The Fear of Loss” in A Lamp For My Feet:
But to grasp [God’s blessings] selfishly and greedily, to hang onto them fiercely and allow myself to be enslaved by the fear of losing them, is to deny Christ. Do not fear, He says to us. I am with you.
I have to say, I have struggled with that — feeling the need to grasp fiercely some of God’s blessings for fear of losing them instead of trusting Him to give, to allow me to have as long as He sees fit and take away as He deems necessary. How much more restful it is just to trust Him.
Seen at girltalk:
“[Feminism] is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands.” “. –G.K. Chesterton, The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, vol. 4, p. 440.
Also seen at girltalk:
“Marriage is a vocation. It is a task to which you are called. If it is a task, it means you work at it. It is not something which happens. You hear the call, you answer, you accept the task, you enter into it willingly and eagerly, you commit yourself to its disciplines and responsibilities and limitations and privileges and joys. You concentrate on it, giving yourself to it day after day in a lifelong Yes.” –Elisabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman, p. 102
Seen on David McGuire‘s Facebook status:
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. ~ Raymond Chandler
From today’s reading in Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer commenting on the verse “Exercise thyself unto godliness” (I. Timothy 4:7):
Probably the trials and temptations of life are intended to give us that inward training which shall bring our spiritual muscles into play. In each of us there is much unused force; many moral and spiritual faculties, which would never be used, if it were not for the wrestling which we are compelled to take up with principalities and powers, with difficulty and sorrow.
If you have some family-friendly quotes you’d like to share, please leave the link to your “Week In Words” post with Mr. Linky below. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well: this is a small enough meme so far that it is not hard to visit around with others who love to glean quotes from their reading as well.
The Week In Words Participants
| 1. bekahcubed | 2. e-Mom @ Chrysalis |
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(Mr. Linky is closed for this week. Please see current Week In Words to add new links.)
We sang this song in church this morning, and it brought back memories of a ladies’ trio singing it at the church we attended in GA. Though it is very simple, it echoes the Psalms both in its tone and some of its phrases.
The Praise Song
I will sing to the Lord with a praise song,
For the Savior heard my cry;
He delivered me out of the miry clay
And set my feet on a rock.
I will praise You, Lord, I will praise You, Lord;
I will praise You all my days.
I will praise You, Lord, I will praise You, Lord;
Please accept my song of praise.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, sing a new song,
Jesus tore the bars away.
Yes, He conquered each foe with His mighty power,
And changed my night into day
I will praise You, Lord, I will praise You, Lord;
I will praise You all my days.
I will praise You, Lord, I will praise You, Lord;
Please accept my song of praise.
~ Ron Hamilton
You can hear most of it sung by Ron here — scroll down to the song title. This CD is from a Patch the Pirate recording.
The last time I posted a song by Ron Hamilton, some of you mentioned not knowing him. The short story is that he was in school a few years ahead of me and often sang in university productions. When he lost an eye to cancer and received an eye patch, some of the kids in his church began calling him “Patch the Pirate” —and a ministry was born. He founded Majesty Music (with his father-in-law, Dr. Frank Garlock, I believe) and began producing tapes of songs and stories for children as well as general Christian music. I found this this testimony of his life online:
I’ve been having a hard time deciding whether to post interesting links or funny things on Saturday — so I am combining them. 🙂
Here are a few things that caught my eye this week:
Then, I was cleaning out some files on an old computer that we’re going to get rid of, and found this that my oldest son sent me ages ago. I am not a cat person, but I still think these are funny:
Cat-English Dictionary
(courtesy of SillyDude.com)
miaow = Feed me.
meeow = Pet me.
mrooww = I love you.
miioo-oo-oo = I am in love and must meet my betrothed outside beneath the hedge. Don’t wait up
mrow = I feel like making noise
rrrow-mawww = Please, the time has come to tidy the cat box.
rrrow-miawww = I have remedied the cat box untidiness by shoveling the contents as far out of the box as was practical.
miaowmiaow = Play with me.
miaowmioaw = Have you noticed the shortage of available cat toys in this room?
mioawmioaw = Since I can find nothing better to play with, I shall see what happens when I sharpen my claws on this handy piece of furniture.
raowwwww = I think I shall now spend time licking the most private parts of my anatomy
mrowwwww = I am now recalling, with sorrow, that some of my private parts did not return with me from that visit to the vet.
roww-maww-roww = I am so glad to see that you have returned home with both arms full of groceries. I will now rub myself against your legs and attempt to trip you as you walk towards the kitchen.
mmeww = I believe I have heard a burglar. If you would like to go and beat him senseless, I shall be happy to keep your spot in the bed warm.
gakk-ak-ak = My digestive passages seem to have formed a hairball. Wherever could this have come from? I shall leave it here upon the carpeting.
mow = Snuggling is a good idea.
moww = Shedding is pretty good, too.
mowww! = I was enjoying snuggling and shedding in the warm clean laundry until you removed me so unkindly.
miaow! miaow! = I have discovered that, although one may be able to wedge his body through the gap behind the stove and into that little drawer filled with pots and pans, the reverse path is slightly more difficult to navigate
mraakk! = Oh, small bird! Please come over here.
ssssroww! = I believe that I have found a woodchuck. I shall now act terribly brave
mmmmmmm = If I sit in the sunshine for another week or so, I think I shall be satisfied.
