Out of the Abundance of the Heart...

This morning Abigail was singing another song from her heart, talking about 'Standing on the Rock' and 'loving Jesus' and 'Standing on the rock of His life.' Anyway, intermingled in there, she was singing 'Proverbs 16:1.'

"The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." - Proverbs 16:1

As I was thinking about all the times I've tried to get just the right words in order before talking or responding to Andrew about something, I realized how silly of me to have so frequently tried to make what is seen (or heard, in this case) be right while I've neglected my heart! Wow!

If I focus my energies on preparing my heart - laying it bear before the Lord, yielding to His washing and renewing of me, allowing His fruit of the Spirit to have fertile ground on which to grow, I won't need to worry about the actual words I say! The Lord will provide the proper words in the right time. So cool! So for me, and I give it to you, I have a focus shift. Lets spill our energies on preparing our heart to be soft, tender, filled with love and respect - then He will fill our tongues with kindness! [Proverbs 31:26]

"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." - Matthew 12:34

Quote for the Day

Yesterday, while driving behind a dually truck:

"OOOHHH!!! That is a dually! Its sides are all puffed out just like a kitty's cheeks!" - Abigail Dawn

Well, I dare say! I never associated kitty cheeks with big trucks! Leave it to imaginative Abigail!

The Radiance of the Moon - the Glory of the Sun

5:30 am - This morning is mild. So mild that, after the Carpenter drove off, I wrapped up in a blanket, took my cup of warming coffee, snagged one of the kiddie-chairs and went to sit in the fading moon and starlight. It was so still. There was a steady breeze, cool, but without a chill. The stars were distant pin pricks of light, dimmed by the light of the moon as she raced to finish her journey across the sky unhindered, for once, by clouds.

The moon – the quiet light that illuminates the night; the quiet light that we would not see, save for her steady gaze at the sun.

If it wasn’t for the sun giving her his radiance, the moon would be dull and dead. The moon is the glory of the sun; when we see her, our thoughts can be rightly drawn to the ruler of the day without diminishing the beauty of the night-orb. The beauty of the moon can remind us of the sun as we eagerly await his dawning.

***

“…he [man] is the image and glory of God: but woman is the glory of man.” – 1 Corinthians 11:7

I want to be as the moon, ever reflecting the radiance of my lord and king – my husband. For though I have surrendered my life to the Lord and King, He has placed me beside this man that I may respect him, honor him, delight him, respond to him – just like the moon responds to the sun. When I stand beside my man, I want to joyously reflect the light and love that he shines on me; when we are apart and others see me, I want them to be able too see and recognize that I am well loved, well cared for, cherished and adored. I want my countenance to ever be lifted up, shining with Andrew’s light. God forbid that I try to shine on my own, separate and distinct from my man, for we are one; when I assert myself as my own I end up dividing what God has joined together – I am then out of order, standing alone and uncovered.

My relationship with my husband is supposed to be a representation of the relationship between Christ and His bride – what a sobering thought! Can you see Christ’s Bride questioning His decisions, His leadership, His way of doing things? No, this would not be right. Neither is it right for me to demand my own and assert my self. Can you see Christ’s Bride taking honor that belongs to the Lord and claiming it as hers? This too would be out of order. Can you see Christ’s Bride standing up and proclaiming that the light she shines with is from herself or because of her worth? No. When that happened, the Lord turned away from the Bride He had redeemed and left her to her own destruction. (See Ezekiel 16) Can you see the moon shining of her own accord, apart from her lord, the sun? No. And neither do I want to stand and shine apart from my beloved. I have tasted the goodness of this wondrous thing called marriage and never do I want to give it up!

***

The sky is beginning to glow. The Creator is dabbing His paintbrush in His wells of rose and tangerine and splashing the soft colors across the sky with broad strokes of His arm. The stars have faded behind the growing blue. But the moon, caught by her radiant lover, turns her pale face for one last kiss before she dips behind the solid hills.

Some Things Aren't Meant to Be Eaten

Such as Limburger Cheese.

Andrew brought some home. We looked up how it is 'supposed' to be eaten: on dark rye or pumpernickel bread, with mustard and sweet onion.

So, Andrew toasted the pumpernickel bread then opened the limburger package. Yep. It stinks. Andrew passed it around for all of us to smell - Abbi and Phin readily turned up their noses, but Liam smelled, and smelled, and smelled some more. And then, he ate it. Ugh. I think we need to have his nose checked.

A John Deere Shirt, A Birthday Skirt… and the Nemesis Struck Again

Well, I had been planning on writing to you about how I conquered the laundry and truly, I had good start this morning. However, it does absolutely NO GOOD to turn the washer on, add the soap, and then forget to put the clothes in. All you end up with is a nice, clean washer – and a big pile of laundry still remains. Oh, hum! But, I did have a good reason for being so air headed: I was making Abigail’s birthday skirt! I had intended to work on it secretly, but there really just isn’t ample time for that. So, I decided to tell her about it and give her something to look forward to, and my! Is she excited! At one point, having forgotten to iron a small section, I said, “O bother!” Abbi was suddenly still. With big, worried eyes she asked, “Do you need to call Nancy?” (My seamstress friend). Fortunately, if I stick to skirts, I should be OK.

However, this skirt DID require that I dust off my ol’ math brain! You see, Abbi wanted a long wrap skirt, “…so long that it touches the floor!” That would have been easy, if I had had fabric wide enough. But I didn’t, so I had to improvise. To make a long story short, I made a 5 panel skirt that is super cute AND it fits her, and should continue to do so for another year or more!!! (If you are at all interested in my rough formulations so you can make a simple 5 panel wrap skirt, let me know and I’ll try to type them out.)

So, what were the kids doing as I was sewing? Well, as usual, they colored for a while – Abbi a long while – and then Phin got out the roller-skates while Liam chased him around giggling. No, we had no casualties!

And, here are two pictures of Lydia in her John Deere shirt. Phinehas was quite proud of his sister, Liam kept pointing at her while saying, “BBBRRROOOOMM!!” and Abigail declared that now Lilly is ready to visit Auntie Mae and Joe at the horse barn… or their cousin Micah, who also loves John Deere things!

Our Overflowing Cup

Each of our days is full to the brim, overflowing, and spilling over – sometimes literally. We don’t have the full busyness that saps your strength and leaves you dragging. No, the fullness in our lives yields contentment, satisfaction, peace and a really good night’s sleep! Each day our cup holds something different, but each day is just as tasty. For example, Sunday we had hot cocoa; “Cocoa” is now Liam’s new favorite word. “Cocoa? Mama, cocoa?” is repeated with wide blue eyes while upholding his never-full-to-the-brim-lest-I-make-a-mess cup (that cuts down on the literally spilling over). We drank our luscious cocoa at Nonno and Mima’s house (my parents) while helping my Aunt Chris (Triss) move in. The kids played in the yard with their new sled – a prize from their plundering Aunt Chris’s things – and generally ran around like a bunch of Indians, scooping gravel from the driveway (much to my father’s frustration), thieving bacon and sausage (much to my mother’s delight – that’s why she made it, anyway!), and getting in everyone’s way at least once (without and casualties and with minimal grumblings). Then we came home and set up our Jungle.

Monday, our cup held cocoa again – but the kids weren’t fooled! It didn’t taste quite as good as Mima’s and it had a distinct bite to it that Phinehas immediately identified as cayenne. Regardless of their letdown, they still drank it up and asked for more. Surrounding our Monday cocoa were school projects, Lego construction, horse riding (now the kids have 2 hobble horses, thanks again to plundering Aunt Chris’s vast array of treasures), and some time spent in the great outdoors. While outside, we went up to the Ash Tree to check on the deer lollipop (salt lick) that Andrew bought last weekend. (Liam had carried it up there, holding it in a bear hug and licking it the whole way.) After checking – and NOT licking – the lollipop we sat down amongst the Hickory Trees to soak in the sun and listen to the song of the birds and the rustling of the squirrels. The quiet didn’t last long as MY squirrels started rustling in the fallen leaves. We looked at some of the leaves and discovered that they had veins, which led to me giving a dissertation on the pulmonary and circulatory systems… all in vein, I’m sure. (Haha.) We’ll surely need to review again some other time. The last dregs of the evening brought out Phin’s engineering capabilities as he built a castle for his Papa. Fortunately, Papa restrained the Ogre so the castle lasted til morning…

Tuesday Morning brought a cup full of hot cider – but only after MORE school projects. I can’t believe how long the kids will sit drawing, cutting, tracing, writing, etc. Even Liam! He makes these fantastic pictures of minute little oblong swirls of color surrounded by what he calls letters: “Aaaee!” “EEEEeee!” Those are his favorites. Phinehas amazed me as he traced the names of the seven different shapes that he had cut out yesterday. I couldn’t believe that he stuck with it to the end! Quite a feat for a 3 ½ year old – and a boy at that! Abigail did some copy work – rather quickly, I might add – then immediately turned the page and wrote and illustrated her first story. I only helped her with sounding out the words; usually she skips sounds when she spells by herself, so I helped her keep track of where she was:

After the projects were put away and the crayons, pencils and markers were gathered from the remote corners of the dinning area, we bundled up for a hike. Even Lydia came, carried in my carrier that was handmade by someone from the Hmong Tribe in Laos. A friend of mine sent it to me and it is the most comfortable (and easy) carrier I’ve used! Ah yes, back to the hike. We ventured into the upper field where we found ‘deer party central.’ There were deer trails and spots where bunches of the ‘walking stew’ had bedded down, weaving all across the field. It looked like aliens had landed and made a faltering attempt at crop circles! Well, the kids had so much fun that they asked for a picnic so we brought our lunch to the Cedar Tree, but we only lasted for half our lunch as the wind picked up and chased the sun behind some dark gray clouds. So we went in to fill our cups with hot cider to chase away the shivers.

Today’s cup was full of pine needle tea, banana bread baking, more school projects and more fun. Abigail wrote a song. Here are the words as she wrote them:

“GOD. I LOV HIM HE IS GRAT.

I LOVE HIM THE GOD OV GOD’S THE KING OV KING THE GOD.

HE IS MIN FORE EVR AND EVR. I LOVE HIM.

HE DIED ON THE CROS. THE CROS WUS HEVEE. HE FEL.

SEE THE LORDE. I LOVE HIM. SEE THE LORD.

GOD IS MI GOD. I WILL PRAS HIM FOREVR AND EVR.”

Pretty cool, eh?

We did have fun! And of course, to make sure I didn’t have too much enjoyment, the Nemesis (laundry) was lurking around the corner, mocking me as there were (and still are) innumerable piles of clothing in various stages of the laundry cycle: dirty-unsorted, dirty-sorted, wet-in-the-washer, dry-in-the-drier, clean-in-the-basket-unfolded, clean-in-the basket-just-folded, clean-in-the-basket-used-to-be-folded-but-she-didn’t-put-me-away… my cup overflows…

Our Own Little Jungle

Well, I'm going to try my hand at taking care of plants. I've always liked to think of myself as an adept gardner, but my past experiences have proven otherwise. On the other hand, my sister-in-law, Lacey, has to merely look at a plant in order for it to grow delightfully vibrant and huge. You should have seen the bouquets she would bring from her gardens this past summer! They were a feast for the eyes. And last winter she had a christmas cactus that was not only immense but absolutely bursting with flowers.

Today, my mother off-loaded some beautiful plants to me... and I'm going to try, try, try to water them regularly! Oh! I love plants, but I have always been so neglectful...

So, we had all these big, beautiful plants in the Suburban on the way home from my parents' house and the kids were THRILLED to be in a jungle. The whole way home they were pretending to be monkeys. At one point, I reached back to stabilize a tippy jade plant and Abbi peeked through the 'trees' and declared, "A TIGER!"

So, we'll see if this tiger can maintain her jungle. I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY going to water these... I promise...