My Olympians

It's fun to nurture the spirit of adventure, of hard work, and achievement, of trying new things and getting back up and trying again. I want my kids to do their best and enjoy the outcome, whatever it, as long as they are doing their best. I want them to be gracious losers and winners, to experience being both.

Proverbs 31

 I just received a sewing machine from my folks, for a belated birthday present. The scarf is a present as well. I'm not sure I'll accomplish much with this sewing machine. We'll see. No, I don't think you have to sew to be a Proverbs 31 woman :).

Dad and Mom honored a couple women in their church for their service, all kinds of interesting ways in which they've contributed, from noticing a boy with a foot they knew could be medically corrected to decorating bulletin boards and buying tubs full of baby clothes at garage sales as well as doing more ordinary but hugely helpful things like teaching Sunday school and putting together flower arrangements.

Proverbs 31 shouldn't be intimidating because certain aspects of it describe all godly women, all women of God, and I might even add, all people of God:  industrious, praise-worthy, planning worthwhile endeavors for others' benefit, helping those in need, speaking words of wisdom, God-fearing, unafraid of the future because it is held in the hands of the One they live for.

Pirate Party

 For Lukas's eighth birthday, a pirate party, we made a boat of sorts, out of a refrigerator box.

 Pirate cupcakes.

 They followed a map to a treasure containing pirate swords, necklaces, blowers, sidewalk chalk.

 Homemade hats, boats, and eye patches.

 The treasure box and map.

 The crew, water bottles with pirate labels, pizza, and cheetos.

The kids also had fun with water balloons and with a Veggie Tales pirate ship play set.

Airplanes . . . . We went to an airplane museum today. What the boys loved were the ones you could climb into and pretend to fly. Colossians 3 Set my mind on things above. Set my mind on Him. No lust, no greed, no anger, no lies, but freedom from sin. When Christ is all, kindness and love and peace rule in me, The Word and thanks fill my mouth, respect, wisdom, grace, the Spirit see.

Wednesday evening, Dad spoke about Jesus's ransoming us, and I love the book of Ephesians. Some may bow to idols of stone, but this is not the Truth. Let the smoke rise as we burn what blinded our eyes before we found the Truth. The heavenly mystery that has over swept me, lifted me up, up to Him, O Lord I come! The charm and power of evil I relinquish, that it may charm and empower me no more, chosen before the foundation of the world, His, O what a joy this is! I have found the Truth.

Prayer power

We drove all night. On the way we ran completely out of gas because Ern did not want to wake the kids and GPS told him he could make it just a little bit farther. He got a ride in a pickup truck to the gas station and back but the one gallon of gas just did not seem to do the trick. Until we all got out and pushed off the incline and the gas got where it needed to be and the car started. When Ern kept trying and trying to get the van to start, the kids asked me what we were going to do. I said pray. Funny thing what a last resort prayer often is yet interesting that almost anybody will eventually resort to it. Does He hear you out in the middle of nowhere? What about in a big crowd? Did He hear Noah above the roar of the flood that was His own doing? Or Joseph in prison for refusing to sin? the three in the furnace? Paul in chains? Of course those folks hardships were in big part the result of their righteousness. Not so mine. Why would He listen to me? It is not like He shaped me in the womb or anything or ordained my days. Oh,yea, He did, actually. And what about Rahab in Jericho, Naomi in the midst of her bitterness, Peter after his betrayal, God responded to them too. I believe He listens to me, loves to hear me speak to Him. I need Him. He is big and I am small. So we made it to Kansas to visit my folks.

Just Fun

I wish I could draw or work with a saw, making things out of wood.
I wish I could fly, pocket a star from the sky in the depths of a cape w/ a hood.

I wish I could dance or like a horse, prance, happy, carefree. Oh! I wish I could swallow a sunbeam and set myself all aglow!

Off for a date with my husband while the kids play at the home of dear friends from our church. To continue my poetry week, here's one I wrote about him, about convincing another that you really care, that you really see value in that one though he or she might feel very unworthy, and indicating that you will be there for future. Of course real love won't push itself where it's not wanted. Sometimes, though, it's not about not wanting love so much as being afraid of disappointment or being unwilling to be vulnerable, needy. I ultimately see God as the Great Lover, that He pursues us and shows Perfect Love to us in a way that human love may reflect.

Whispered words roll from her lips, he kisses them away. There was no protest great enough; his love would still hold sway. She fled from him; her fear was great, it would not set her free. He found her, murmured in her ear, "no need to run from me." Again she tried to make escape, she could not understand that he would follow, love so great, open heart and hand. As tears gave way to radiance, now she finally knew the greatness of the love he gave never waned but grew. Her heart full, her spirit soared, she found that she could trust, for with such  evidence he showed, she had no choice. She must.

My favorite subjects are my God, my husband, and my kids. Our lives are simple. We live in the moment. But like Platos cave or like the Matrix, we recognize that what we see simply is a shadow of what is.
The kids finish soccer camp today. This weekend we have church and we pack to go see my folks in Kansas Monday. It will be a lengthy two-day trip to get there. While there, we plan to celebrate a b-day for Lukas at a park with some other kids. The theme is to be pirates.
But before we leave, Ernie has a medical consultation about the identity of a cyst he recently had removed.
Life is full of blessings, full of grace and mercy, but it also contains much pain, pain that reminds us we were meant for another life, pain that helps us to be more fit for that life if we allow God to work in that pain. He breaks us, He breaks our illusions, so that greater reality can spill forth.

Water confined in a vessel, warm, wet, stale, moistens the tips of fingers, long, tapered, pale.
The vessel struck, is broken, water flowing free, soaking skirt and bodice, saturating me.
Water cools with breezes, light, lifting winds, evaporating, rising. I feel alive again.

Released and spreading substance renews, makes good, accomplishes a giving, the captured never could.

May your light shine through me, shine for everyone to see, O the love within my heart, for You my Father, You my Lord.
I wish to serve You all my days, to glorify Your name, to bring You praise, O the love within my heart for You my Father, You my Lord.
When this lifetime has ended, when my spirit has ascended, when I bow before your throne,
to worship You, Lord, You alone, still this song will be my theme: O how I love You, I will sing.

God, my God, you are an awesome God and I am awestruck before you.
God, I fall, I fall down on my face, I fall down in the dust before you.
There are things, there are so many things about you I don't understand.
There are mysteries beyond mortality.
Human comprehension can't grasp them.
And I just can't see why you would choose to be thought a criminal and die for me.

Went to see the Tempest performed in the park. We all went. I love the line, "heart's sorrow and a clear life ensuing."
I'm so thankful for the forgiveness given at the foot of the cross.

O for a quiet heart, a gentle restful spirit,
To be a bright light in the dark, to love God's will, not fear it.
O to embrace the plan and not to buck against it,
To open wide my hands and calmly let Him fill them.
O for a real contentment in serving day by day,
Never elsewhere searching, eyes steadfast upon the way.


A poem I wrote a while back but that I still echo the sense of in my life today, in my prayers today.

Dr. Seuss Baby Shower

Also had a wall of Seuss quotes and one with Seuss hats taped on to it that you could take your picture under if you wanted.
And fun games, including decorating bibs and onesies with fabric paint: future hockey player; if you think I'm cute, you should see my mom; I'm watching you w/ big eyes; and on a bib: these people put my cape on backward.

And a devotional from Ps 139 because a "person is a person not matter how small" not since Dr. Seuss says so but since we were knit together by God in our mother's wombs and He has planned our days, He is always always there and knows us thoroughly and loves us deeply. He is truly awe and devotion-inspiring. What a wonder that He cares so much for us.

What if today were my last? How would that change my choices, my goals, how I spend my time?
Christ warns and rebukes but He is also full of compassion. Paul in chains oddly is grateful for his chains and his opportunity to share his faith and that the gospel is still being preached, even though some of that is through selfish ambition (Phil. 1).
What really matters? That God be seen in us, that we be a light and let God use us where we are, and that we allow Him to work in others' lives also and prayerfully lean on Him for guidance as to how that should happen.
May He be seen in me today. More than anything else, I really do want to be fully His.

My husband

I'm so grateful for the gift God has given me of a man who loves Him and who loves me and our children in a way that is a reflection of God's love. Ernie is a giver. He spends time with us. He listens to us. He prays for us. He takes care of us, keeps our finances in order. He encourages us. I can hardly believe what he tells me of what I am to him, of how he treasures me. This cherishing is a God-given gift, far more worthwhile than wealth, position, appearance. He is my lover but first and foremost my husband is someone I can trust, someone who leads our home with God at the head of his life, someone who is not consumed with himself. He is imperfect, there are things I might want to change about him, and things he'd like to change about me, but essentially, he is a gift far beyond what I'd dreamed of and certainly beyond what I deserve.

Just another way I count myself blessed and am humbled at God's mercy (sparing from deserved consequences) and grace (giving undeserved blessings) to me.

Soccer, Sand, and Sun

It's really hot and today the kids played soccer at soccer camp while Ern and I and Leth tried to keep cool and keep the water bottle ready.

Loving the spray parks.
Heat like all other weather extremes strikingly bears witness to divinity, God's power, that the wind and the waves obey Him, that He brought the sun, moon, and stars into being. He is a light in the darkness, our sun and shield (Ps 84:11). The heavenly city won't need for a sun for He's there (Rev. 21:23). He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29) and also a refining one (Mal. 3:2).
Ironically, yet wondrously, He's also water in the desert and so are those who follow Him. Water in a dry and thirsty land (Is. 32:2). He is the source of living water (John 4:10).
I need to search out my copy of an old poem entitled Christ the Paradox and post it sometime soon. Profound and beautiful truth.

No Nail Picture

Because Ernie doesn't like to put many holes in the wall (even those sticky hook things seem to rip off the paint) and I admit, I change my mind frequently about what pictures I want where, I've been trying to think of other ways to put up pictures, leaning them against a wall or in this case, putting them in the window.
I kind of like the way these pictures of the kiddos look in the window in our dining room space. I know the chandelier is kind of in the way but I still like it. And I like that girl sitting at the table too.