13 Questions about YOU!

Be creative and have fun!

1. What is the perfect number of kids to have?
2. What is the first thing you want to do when you are in a really bad mood?
3. What's your favorite way to relax?
4. What would you like to do?
5. Where would you like to go?
6. Who would you like to meet?
7. What's your most embarrassing memory? (come on! Do tell!!)
8. What's your BEST memory?
9. What would you like to do over?
10. What is one thing that life has taught you?
11. What would you consider one of your strengths?
12. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
13. Who (besides Jesus) has been a major influence in your life and how have they influenced you???

Besieged!

I have been studying and meditating on Psalm 139 for the past couple of weeks so I thought I'd share one of the treasures that I found. Verse 5 says:

You have enclosed me behind and before...

At first glance I would say that this verse speaks of how God keeps us and protects us. And I do believe that is part of what it is saying. But I think God showed me more about this verse. As I searched and dug into it I discovered the word "enclosed" is literally translated "besieged". That really intrigued me!!! And so I looked up the word besieged and part of the definition was - surround with armed forces, for the purpose of compelling to surrender. That was a powerful picture for me! Again, I see God fighting FOR me in a huge way!!! How desperately I want to be wholly surrendered to God and yet I continue to hold back! BUT, God will do what it takes to accomplish it in me!! I don't stand a chance!!

Everytime I think of this verse now I smile and sometimes I even laugh!!!

The next time you are feeling frustrated with yourself for failing yet again... Remember! God's got you surrounded!!

A GREEN Thursday!

In preparation of St. Patricks Day, I'm dedicating this Thirteen Thursday to GREEN! Many thanks to Heather for making this project so easy! ;)

Green 1

1. John Deere GREEN!

Green 2

2. Cactus are GREEN! This one is a BEAST!!!

Green 3

3. Grasshoppers can be GREEN! Isn't he cute?!

Green 4

4. This is Heather's purse. And wouldn't you know... it's GREEN!!!!

Green 5

5. Markers can be GREEN! Of course you can also find GREEN crayons, GREEN pencils, GREEN paint, and GREEN pens too!!

Green 6

6. Lifesavers can be GREEN! YUM!

Green 7

7. Heather's favorite sneakers are GREEN! (Big surprise.)

Green 8

8. This is what Heather looks like after dissecting a starfish. She was just a bit GREEN! LOL. Hey! Her favorite color! Maybe she should dissect starfish more often!!! What do you think???

Green 9

9. Money is GREEN! No wonder Heather's favorite color is GREEN!

Green 10

10. Frogs are GREEN. And this one is sitting in GREEN slime - YUCK!

Green 11

11. Lily pads are GREEN! Maybe the little GREEN frog, sitting in the GREEN slime should move over here.

Green 12

12. Yoyo is GREEN! Do you think He just dissected a starfish????

Green 13

13. The grass on the other side of the fence is always GREENER!!!! At least that's what they say....

Where's Turtle?

I got to go over and take pictures of a friend's turtle today (or was that yesterday now?! I really SHOULD be in bed!!!!). It's for a book project I'm working on called "Where's Turtle?". Already I can tell that this project is going to
s-t-r-e-t-c-h me. But I think I might have gotten one page done in spite of several obstacles I had to overcome. How do you like that for confidence?! LOL.

Emergency!

We ended up in the emergency room AGAIN last night. Jessi's eye swelled up. We noticed it around 6 pm. Below her left eye it was quite red and we could almost see it swelling right before our eyes. So, I called the doctor and she said to take her in to emergency. UGH! By the time we got to the emergency room the bottom of her eye was looking some better but above her left eye was now quite red! As we were sitting in the emergency room I watched it move from the upper left eye to the upper right eye! It was sooooo weird!!! By the time the doctor saw her the left eye looked almost normal - but the right eye was swelling and moving from above to below. And by the time we left, around 10 pm she looked fine! It was totally bizarre! The doctores claimed it was an allergic reaction to something and gave her Benedryl. I've never seen or heard of ANYTHING like it and I didn't feel like the doctors took me seriously at all. Of course, had I been the doctor and not witnessed what I just witnessed, I doubt I would have taken me seriously either!! I was just another 'nut-case' mother over-reacting to a slightly swollen/red eye!! But really, I'm glad it was nothing serious (just would like to have not spent 4 hours in the emergency room and another $50 for them to tell me that!!!!) and that we didn't have to stay two nights this time!!! And Jessi is thrilled to have yet another personalized bracelet which she wore proudly to church today. (And I had just convinced her to take the last one off! LOL.)

Flowers

Though my favorite pictures usually have a face in 'em... I do take pictures of just about EVERYTHING! I'm always trying to stretch myself with my photography. That means taking pictures that I wouldn't necessarily normally take and trying to make them interesting! So.... because everyone is in the springtime mood, I'll share a few of my flower pictures.

One nice thing about flowers - they don't run from the camera!!!

ENJOY!!!

Bleeding Hearts

My neighbor put a BEAUTIFUL garden in a couple of years ago. I've taken a few photos over there - this being one of them, but I tend to get side-tracked from all the lovely flowers to take pictures of ugly insects! LOL. Or possibly of her adorable little daughter....

Back Lighting

I took this picture for one of my photo projects. I needed a photo that showed back-lighting. Because of my low camera angle, the sun was shining through the petals of the flower, making them appear somewhat translucent. I also love orange against the deep blue sky!!!

All the way from Hawaii

Bea Peterham called me one morning. She said a friend had given her some beautiful Hawaiian flowers and thought I might like to take some pictures. I think she was quite surprised when I showed up with my camera, tri-pod and posterboard (for a reflector). I spent a couple of hours over there taking several pix of her large bouquet! But she was very gracious. :)

Sunflower

Another neighbor of mine has a few sunflowers that tower over her fence - and me too for that matter! It always amazes me that the stems of these giants are able to hold the weight of the flower!! It just doesn't look possible!!!

Admittedly, I enhanced this photo a bit. I added my own sky - it just needed a little help that day. :)



I do have a few (a very few) pictures from my own neglected garden. But I'm sorry to say... they aren't worth showing!

Photo Adventures

People are always asking me what my favorite subject is for a photo... I must say I tend to like faces - People, animals, even insects!! Landscapes and flowers generally bore me. I have seen a few that 'wow' me - but those are the exception!! I especially like to capture personality! Sea-gulls are fun cuz they are so NASTY! Babies are fun - cuz, well, they are babies and who doesn't like babies? LOL.

Here's a few different animals I've managed to capture...

We found this crow on our front porch last summer, squawking up a storm! (And pooping too! YUCK!!!) He was obviously injured cuz I chased him around for a while snapping hundreds of pix and he never flew away. I had him cornered here - up in our basement window sill. LOL. Anything for a picture. That's my motto!



My mom and I went over to Seneca Park last winter with a bag of peanuts. Before long we had several hungry squirrels. They got their peanuts and we got our pictures. It was a BLAST!!!




I have a little testimony to go along with this picture... I was at church and found this hawk perched up in the branches directly above my van. I was kinda bummed because I didn't have my camera with me. When I drove off I thought for sure that I would scare him away, but he didn't budge! Later that evening I had to head back to church for a Bible study. This time I brought my camera with me - just in case!!! And on the way to the church I prayed that the hawk would still be there. AND HE WAS!!!! :) I parked RIGHT UNDER THE BRANCH that he was perched on, climbed up onto the roof of my van, and snapped away!! Right after I had packed away my camera and had gone into the church he flew off!!! God is so good! And really does care about the little things!!!!

Those Doggone Blogger Blues

Okay, so I'm not so good at keeping up with this blog thing. It's not that I don't THINK about writing. And it's not that I don't WANT to write. It's just that I don't know WHAT to write!!! So.... that's the way it is....

Yup, it's those doggone blogger blues!

I've got the blogger blues
my blogs are so boring
They make you snooze!

OHHHHH! Those Doggone blogger blues
Nothing to write
No worthy news!
No stories to tell
that would amuse

The blogger blues
Those doggone blogger blues...

Do Not Learn the Way of the Nations

I received a comment on my post entitled 13 Things about My Experience with Homeschooling from 'S' and thought I'd post my reply to that comment as my post for today. Anyone is free to comment!!

****************************************************************

Hi S! Thank you for commenting. I know a lot of people have the same concerns as you do about homeschooling, and while I will attempt to address your concerns, I'm not pretending to know all the answers! :) I do, however, believe the Bible to be the word of God and therefore consider it to be TRUTH. It is where I go to find my answers to questions about life. I state that up front because each one of us has the God-given choice to believe His word or to not believe His word!

A verse that I cling to when I am confronted with this same question about socialization (it’s an argument I hear over and over again as a homeschooler) is Jeremiah 10:2:

Do not learn the way of the nations…

(There’s more to the verse, but that’s the part that I want to focus on.)

And then verse 3 says:

For the customs of the peoples are delusion…

What does God mean here? I believe He is cautioning us about learning what they do – learning about their evil practices.

I want to teach my kids that it’s not okay to take things that don’t belong to them. So how do I go about it? I think that it would be absurd for me to teach them how not to steal! And I’ll go a bit further – my focus should not be on why we shouldn’t steal, instead, my focus should be to instill in them generosity; to teach them why it really is better to give than to receive and to give them opportunity to practice giving and sharing.

The other day my daughter was given 2 suckers from the teller at the bank. We were on our way to pick up her two older siblings. She had a dilemma, there were not enough suckers to go around and she knew it!!! Now I suppose I could have ‘rescued’ her by getting another sucker so that there would be enough to go around. Instead I asked her what she thought she should do. She struggled with it a bit cuz she really, really wanted a sucker for herself. But in the end she gave her suckers to her brother and sister. I was sooo proud of her!!! And I told her that God would bless her for giving up something that she really wanted. I believe as they see for themselves these principles in action that my kids will not even have the desire to steal. Or if the temptation does arrive – they will know from experience that there is a better way!!

In order to teach my children to behave I don’t sit down and show them what is naughty first. Of course I address bad behavior as it comes along… but I certainly wouldn’t be able to (even if I wanted to) show them all the wrong things they need to avoid! Again, I believe my focus should instead be on why they should want to behave and why it is better to speak truth and do good even when they don’t feel like it. We all experience the fruit of their choices – good or bad!

This world can be a scary place! Not everyone wants good for my children and they will face people that want only to hurt them. Do they really need to be exposed to harmful behavior in order to learn how to deal with it? I don’t think so. And I believe that God’s word teaches us the opposite. He tells us to think on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable and that which is excellent or praiseworthy!

You may think I’m naïve for believing so. But as I said up front, I believe the Bible is God’s word and that it is TRUTH. The second part of Jeremiah 10:2 says:

…And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens
Although the nations are terrified by them.

You see, my hope is in God. I pray that God will protect them and give them MUCH wisdom. Apart from God NONE of us are safe!!! As a mom I have blown it over and over and over again. Even I, who wants good for my children, have hurt them many times. But as I give my mistakes over to God, oh, He is soooo good! He works them all for good.

I hope I have answered your question somewhat! If you have any further questions feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer. God’s richest blessings on you!!!

Granny

13 Things about.... Granny!

1. Her name is Ona.
2. She's beautiful. Don't you think she's beautiful???
3. She loves people and has many, many friends and loves making new friends too.
4. She's extremely generous and is always giving stuff away. My kids love her 'granny bags' cuz you never know what you'll find in one!!
5. She loves to shop. She often buys things just because. But then she always has things on hand to give away!!
6. She lived through the depression but she says it really didn't affect her cuz they were so poor to begin with that she didn't notice any change in their lifestyle.
7. She loves flowers and belongs to a garden club.
8. Her favorite invention (that was invented during her lifetime) is electricity.
9. She grew up in Oklahoma and moved to New York after she was married.
10. She has three children - all girls. My mom was her second and they named her after my Grampy! (I think they were expecting a boy!!)
11. She has a good sense of humor and loves to laugh.
12. She is always concerned about safety. Wearing a seatbelt in Granny's car was always the law!!! But that's cuz she loves us so much!
13. She's a good cook and used to cater from time to time. I especially like her 'gooseballs' - YUM!!!!

Of course there is much, much more to Granny. You can't sum a person up in thirteen things. That takes a lifetime and beyond!!

Isaiah 62:1

This scripture really ministered to me tonight...

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet,
Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness,
and her salvation like a torch that is burning.

--Isaiah 62:1

What a beautiful picture of the God's love and commitment to us! He's fighting FOR US - and if God be for us who can stand against us!