writing helps

Here is an outstanding article on teaching writing, complete with lots of helpful links.  Very comprehensive and well-researched!

clap your hands

While reading this Psalm (47), I had to laugh.  It reads like a move-your-body, clap-your-hands kind of worship song.  To think that some churches allow only hymns!  My spirit lives for this!

Hymns? I love some of them (How Great Thou Art), but others put me to sleep.  See the U-tube below of "How Great Thou Art" with Max Lucado's words in the nature-inspired background, from his book "No Wonder They Call Him Savior".  It's six minutes long.  Six minutes well spent, I assure you!  Scroll down below this post.

As I type this, violent thunder and roaring rain liven up the night, as though obeying the "clap your hands" command in my Psalm.

Psalm 47

Clap your hands, all you
nations;
shout to God with cries of
joy
How awesome is the Lord
Most High,
the great King over all the
earth!
He subdued nations under
us,
peoples under our feet.
He chose our inheritance for
us,
the pride of Jacob, whom he
loved.


God has ascended amid shouts
of joy,
the Lord amid the sounding
of trumpets.
Sing praises to God, sing
praises;
sing praises to our King, sing
praises.

For God is the King of all the
earth;
sing to him a psalm of
praise.
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on his holy
throne.
The nobles of the nations
assemble
as the people of the God of
Abraham,
for the kings of the earth
belong to God;
he is greatly exalted.



Good night, friends!  You know that laundry pile?  Still there, I'm afraid.  I'm off to make another dent in it.

I also want to leave you with this very thoughtful post by Kristin, from We Are That Family.  What a reminder of how we should love our husbands!

How Great Thou Art

dance a jig

Psalm 46, which I read at dinner, has one of my favorite lines in all of Scripture.

Verse 10
Be still and know that I am God.


What does "be still" mean?  Some would argue that it means don't fret.  But to me, it's much more than that.  

- Smile, because he's got your back.

- Smell the flowers, because he orders your days.

- Give generously, because the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

- Dance with joy, because your journey was ordained by him.

- Enjoy the ride, because you've got a chauffeur.

- Live in the moment, because he has a plan for tomorrow.

- Live as my exuberant, ever-smiling Beth does, always ready to dance a jig, because


....you are His.


And He is God!

grace at work

The boys pulled out the craft supplies yesterday, a rainy day, and made what I can only describe as hodgepodge collages.  While I enjoyed them, it made me feel guilty that we haven't done any flowers yet.  It is spring, after all, making it flower craft season.

Peter expressed sadness today that the tulips outside are now spent.  Every year, I feel that same longing.  When I read Matthew 6 the other day, the part that resonated with Peter was this:

Matthew 6:29-32
And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

He brought up the splendor of the tulips. Praise God that he's so engaged!  I love reading to them!  It seems so foolish now that I assumed young children wouldn't glean much from complicated Scriptural passages.  They do!  The spirit of God is there while I read; I see Him working in their little hearts.  Squirrelly or not, preoccupied or not, they soak up truth.  Every day I want to raise my hands to God and thank him for this new habit!  Hearing the truth daily gives one a hunger and thirst for more.  Amazing!


Keeping it real with this next picture:

When you make life about relationship, clothes don't get folded.  Tonight, so help me, I'll get to this.  Thank God for this preschool table, which we removed from the playroom due to Miss Beth's climbing habit.  It now keeps my unfolded laundry off the couch.

This year we got blessed with two robin's nests.  Now that we're down to one car and Daddy has it most of the waking hours (Census temporary job, coupled with school and his custodial part-time jobs), we find ourselves quite the homebodies.  In his grace, God put interesting things in our midst at home, making our isolation barely noticeable.

The work of grace in our lives seems boundless.  Most days, I don't feel like we're a family in financial peril.  Isn't that amazing?  It's Him.  I can only describe it as a metaphysical lifting of us out of our circumstances--as though we are looking down on reality, but not living it.  Has grace felt like that to you, at some time in your life?

This little gem is the main reason the laundry isn't folded!  She is one busy baby, folks!  I've had increased headaches lately, and I finally figured out that because I can't confine her anywhere anymore, I'm unable to keep up with my water drinking and snacking, and the nursing is using up what I do take in.  She's my only baby who has scaled all the various "containers" this early.  When she's outside, I have more opportunity to eat and drink.  Fewer no no's around....and yes, we've babyproofed the house to the max!

Wet pants from the wagon.

These precious ones!  They make my heart feel filthy rich and spoiled.  One of the questions I'll surely ask my Lord first thing, is why some of the women who desire children aren't blessed with them.  Infertility is one of the hardest things for me to understand.  I know what grace is, and I'm sure they know it in their lives, in regards to this longing.  But when I think of their plight, I can't help feeling guilty about the richness my children bring to my heart and life.  With Mother's Day looming,  these thoughts are especially hard.

Good night, friends!  Those laundry baskets are calling my name.  Bless you!