Update on My Top 10 List

Recently, I told my two wonderful readers about the things I have been doing and praying about lately. When I first started blogging, it seems I had more time to detail what was happening on a more frequent basis. Life changes, and people do, too. I evolve all the time as a wife and mother. One thing I like about reading inspiring blogs is that it challenges you to be a better person, constantly reminding you of things you need to do or do better.

I have found that blogs are like a box of chocolates, to borrow from a famous quotation. There are all kinds, because there are all kinds of people. Like some news stories that I just cannot bring myself to read, because of the usually depressing, gory or just plain wicked content, there are some blogs that I have come across that I cannot finish. However, there are a lot of inspiring ones out there as well, and I love the way that they tie in Bible verses and concepts with the theme of the day.

Having said that, I have to remember to always get a good balance of daily Bible reading, for there lies real truth and real answers to life's questions and challenges. No blog can substitute for the Word of God. Between studying the Bible and raising my children and training them, trying to be a good wife and daughter and sister, and attempting the impossible task of keeping a reasonably clean house (which I have decided is just going to be impossible until Hurricane Hannah gets a little age on her)and trying to find a little time to eBay and the like, there just is not much time for writing these days.

Anyway, I am very happy to report that my dad is doing remarkably better! So many people were praying for him, and he got cards from all over the land from people who cared and prayed. He still cannot exert, but his sense of humor has survived, along with his appetite, so I think he has had a reprieve for a while, and for that I am tremendously grateful.

My sister-in-law, Brooke, had a little twenty-four hour period of shock, when the doctor told her that she might be carrying twins! Poor little tiny size 2?? Brooke just about lost it. However, a subsequent ultrasound on stronger equipment revealed that it looks more like one (unless one is hiding!) She is at the "peanut" stage, when baby looks like a little peanut! I remember Daniel looking like that once! Those of you who know him now probably can't believe he was ever the size of a peanut, huh? :) I'm not sure we have a due date yet, but I will keep you posted!
Auntie D'Lee wants a little red-headed girl, but parents want a little boy! I think we will all be happy with any baby we get!

We are almost finished with this round of homeschooling, but I think we are going to continue to work through the summer with some fun projects to keep us in the swing of things. I think it is important for the kids to read during the summer, more than they have time to in the school year. I have several of the classics planned for them. Since I "majored" in English, I have my favorites that I want to share with them. Taking into account their interests, I think they will enjoy some of these books very much.

Sarah is reading every thing she can get her hands on. She requested that I order her a copy of "Through the Looking Glass" which I did, and she has been reading some of that. I think it is a little over her head, seeing that she is in kindergarten, but if she wants to read, I don't want to discourage her.

Writing is coming harder for her. It did for me, too. She is an artist, so I thought she would pick up on it faster. She can write anything she wants to, but she is still using a mix of capital and lower-case letters. I guess we will have to work all the harder on that next year. She is a lefty, and it feels really funny trying to teach her to write. I may have to cart her over to my father, who is the only living lefty (besides German resident brother Don) who could help her.

Micah wants me to take teacher's prerogative and skip him a grade! He has been doing a curriculum that is a year ahead of where he is, but I don't know if his maturity level dictates that to be a good move. We have plenty of time to decide that a little later.

My Sam is nearly through. I cannot believe I will have another little eaglet flying the coop soon. He is trying to decide what career path he would like to prepare for, and I don't envy him, as that is one of life's toughest decisions. Sam is a scrapper, though, and I know he will succeed at whatever he sets his mind to do.

Speaking of eaglets, the oldest is loving his life in Kentucky. He feels like he finally has found the peer group he never had here. There's quite a "fraternity" of Christians there who do everything together and share everything from car rides to food to advice with one another. Two particular housefuls of boys hang out all the time, eat together, date in groups (which Mom heartily approves of) and frequent lots of churches in the area when they are holding special lectures and meetings. There just really isn't time for him to do all there is to do. The church leaders where he attends provide numerous opportunities for the young people to have Bible studies, singings, and social events, and he gets frustrated because he would love to be at them all but can't, if he ever wants to get any sleep. He still is plugging along as a barista at Starbucks and is very happy that his benefits finally kicked in. I feel better knowing that if he gets sick, he can now afford a doctor!

Speaking of doctors, I had to go see one last Friday. I just felt awful. I still don't feel great, even though I have been through a Z-pac now. I hope it keeps working like they say it will. I really prefer good ol' penicillin to the other antibiotics, but the doctors will hardly give it anymore. I don't know what this is, but I woke up at 3:30 a.m. with a 101 degree fever. This---after 5 days of antibiotics. If I did not know better, I would think that I had mono. But I had that in college, and I have been told you don't get it again. I am beginning to wonder. I have read of so many people who have been getting it lately....

Well, that is the update. I have one more piece of cute news, but I will share that and pictures in the next post!

The Power of One

I meditate a lot during my days. No, I don't sit in funny positions and hum while I do it. Many times, I am meditating as I go through my daily chores. My children hate it, because, to them, I am quiet a lot of times, but my thoughts are keeping me well-entertained!

Today's meditation was focused on the power of just one person. I know that is not a new concept, but I have never read a book or seen a movie by that title, so my thoughts are original with me. I think one time, one of the armed forces had some kind of campaign going about "an Army of One," and I thought at the time that it was an entirely stupid advertising ploy. Can you see some private telling his sergeant that he's going to sleep in a little today, because, after all, he is an army of one? I don't think so.

However, I do believe that there is a time when the power of one is an incredible force.

My thoughts were focused on someone today, and I was thinking about how the actions of one person can impact so many people in unimaginable ways. The person I was thinking about has no earthly idea how one act, one decision, affected scores of lives in both positive and negative ways, and actually, the effects continue even now. This is the "ripple effect" in action. Drop one pebble in the water and watch the ripples go out from the spot where the pebble was dropped. A pond can be disturbed from one shore to the other with a big enough rock!

That being said, how much does it behoove me to carefully consider the repercussions of all I say and do? Chances are, I will never even see most of what comes from my own words and actions. It will play out in so many different theaters of life that I could not possibly ever see all the "shows."

One little boy....2000 years ago....5000 hungry people....5 loaves, 2 fishes and Jesus. Jesus took the lunch of one little boy and impacted over 5000 peoples' lives that day.

My daily life....a card mailed, a phone call made, an email sent....words spoken to my husband and children, to a stranger in the grocery store, to 8,9, and 10 year-olds in Bible class....things done and left undone....every decision I make in a day's time to say something or not say it, to do something or not do it....all these things will impact someone in days or years to come.

That's heavy!

Take the most insignificant "job" in the world (in man's eyes) and tell yourself that doing it won't change anyone's life. You will be wrong. You will change the course of someone's life either for good or for bad. Many mothers hate their job because they think that wiping noses and bottoms all day long couldn't possibly be the least bit important in the grand scheme of things. That's fallacious and dangerous logic.

Sometimes, the decisions we make yield fruit quickly or in our line of vision. If only he had not decided to take that trip to town today, he wouldn't have been in the car crash....If only she had not married that louse, her life surely would have been easier....If only he had decided to be a doctor instead of an airplane pilot....and on and on it goes.

What is not easy to see are the actions that we take today that do not have immediate results or results that take place out of our hearing and seeing. Many times, we never know how some of our actions changed lives until many, many years later, when it is too late to undo what we foolishly or unknowingly did.

The power of one is more awesome than we believe it to be. As Aristotle said, "What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do." To do, or not to do----that seems to be the relevant question!

Because Sometimes You Just Need to Smile!

Today was one of those days when nearly everything I looked at made me smile! Those days are sometimes few and far between in an era when we have a lot of images that are put before us that we had just really rather not see. I am always refreshed by the great pictures my friends send my way, as well as those provided by my ever-comical family!


The first image that made me smile was this one! This is my sister-in-law Steph (short for Stephanie) and she was going to do her "surprise" face with my niece, Kelsey some years ago at Christmas as we opened packages. However, Kelsey faked her out, and Steph ended up making funny faces all by herself! :)



Today is Steph's birthday (all at once now: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPH!) She is a wonderful wife to my brother ("Parson" Dan) and a great mother to her three kids, Kelsey, Ben, and Lauren! She is also a super daughter-in-law to my parents and a loving and caring sister-in-law/aunt to my family! Steph is a peacemaker, soft-spoken, and very godly in the way she lives her life before others. Being a preacher's wife is never easy, but she handles the pressures gracefully and prayerfully! She wears many, many hats, and she makes us all very proud! I should note that she doesn't always have the Surprise Face! Sometimes, she looks like this:










In other news, My crazy brother Doug sent me some great email today. I don't know if you have seen these pictures, but I thought they were adorable.

Apparently, this tigress was born in captivity, and she was nursed for four months by a pig. She evidently developed quite an attachment to her surrogate mother, because now, she does not mind playing with little piglets. The pictures are pretty self-explanatory. They are all in a Thai zoo, according to the email, but be aware that I did not check out the story. I am content to take the sweet images at face value, because they, too, made me smile today.












































































(The last one reminds me of myself in bed at night, when all the kiddies pile in.... :)

And finally, here is a news story that made me smile....

I am sure you have all been following the case of the missing Nun Bun, right here in my own back yard! The Nun Bun turned up in a coffee shop in Nashville several years ago, when a man, starting to eat his morning pastry, noticed that it looked like Mother Teresa. After several patrons confirmed the man's thoughts that his cinnamon bun looked just like the famous nun, the bun was shellacked and put into a case at the restaurant, where many made the pilgrimage to see the resemblance for themselves. Sadly, a "crummy" thing (sorry, could not resist the pun on the bun) happened on Christmas Day, 2005. Someone broke into the Bongo Java coffee shop and stole the Nun Bun!

By now, the owners had pretty much given the bun up for lost. The Nashville Police Department wrote up the theft report, giving the bun a value of $25. All of us who eBay know that she is worth so much more. (A partially-eaten grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary went on eBay for $28,000 last year! Just imagine what an untouched cinnamon bun could fetch!) Now, someone has begun sending pictures to the local Nashville paper claiming to have the "Immaculate Confection" and photographing it with religious statues around the nation. With a complete lack of shame, the would-be ransomers are taunting the owners of the Bongo Java, who claim to have no interest in making money off the icon. Who would dare to fence such a "hot" item on eBay or in another visible market? (Sorry, again!)

For the full story, read here: You be the judge! Do you think the bun looks like her or not?



So that's it for today. I hope you have smiled a little, too. And please keep an eye out for our pastry-gone-missing! It needs to come home!

Since Mother's Day took a backseat to an ailing Dad....

My mother is one of the most gracious women I have ever known. Of course, she gets a lot of that from her own dear mother and grandmother, reportedly two of the sweetest women to ever grace the earth with their presence. While none of the three was/is sinless, they have always provided their children with wonderful examples of how a lady should act, live, and treat her children.

When my mother's time on earth is done, an image I will probably always carry with me in my mind is the picture of her smile. She has a wonderful laugh. It translates well over the phone, too, where we sometimes laugh until we cry. We did that just today. Those times are the best! A mother's smile can brighten the dreariest of days, whether you are 3 or 43.

This year, Mother's Day got shoved to the side because my dad was very sick. There was no real pomp and circumstance to mark Mother's Day---just a brief opening of the Mother's Day goody bags and cards for her and for me from our children. She still cooked dinner; she still cleaned up the dishes. There was no moping that we couldn't be taken out to dinner--only gratitude that Dad woke up another day. "He surely took good care of me last year when I was so sick," she remembered as we put up dishes. Now, it's her turn to try and nurse him back. That's what people who love each other do best!

If my parents did not get one more day on earth, I will feel good that they have had a couple of "retirement years" to spend together. The early years were not like that. Dad was a Highway Patrolman, working over 70 hours a week for no more pay than if he had worked 40 hours. Mom spent over 40 years as a cytotechnologist (many of those years at home in a "home laboratory" so she could be with us children,) diagnosing pap smears and biopsies, etc. Dad spent the last 12 years of his working life separated many nights from Mom, bringing in the dearly departed loved ones of others to the local funeral home at all hours of the day and night, working days on end sometimes without a break. Mom was always courageous and gracious, whatever trials came. They worked hard, and I am happy they have a few years now to enjoy the fruit of their labors on this earth, and to sleep and awaken together!

Mom and Dad on their 45th anniversary this year

So, better late than never, here's to a true lady--my heroine--my role model--my best friend--my Mom!

This poem reflects how she lived, and now, I proudly follow her example:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there,
Ours boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere.
For smears are on the windows, little smudges on the door;
I should apologize I guess for toys strewn on the floor.
But I sat down with the children and we played and laughed and read,
And if the windows do not shine, their eyes will shine instead.
And when at times I'm forced to choose the one job or the other,
I want to be a housewife, but first I'll be a mother.

--author unknown

On my wedding day...with 3 of my favorite "mothers"--my Aunt Marty, Mom, and my Aunt Fran

Late Sunday Update!

Well, it has been an interesting weekend! No boredom here! :) I've had one of those weekends where I have had an interesting mix of good news and bad news. The good has been really good, and the bad has been pretty sad and yucky.

Here's the good news:

1. Dad is better! THANK YOU to all you sweet Christians who have been praying for him. It's working! Don't stop now! We have a ways to go, but he made it out to both church services today and to a potluck out at my brother's house later! That is a huge step in the right direction! We think that he was once again taking a medicine which was conflicting with something in his internal make-up and exacerbating the congestive heart failure. I am going to go over there myself and throw away all the offending meds so that he cannot take them again. He switched himself (not usually recommended, but necessary in this case due to a hard-headed doctor) back to his old blood pressure medicine, and he started getting better. He really had me worried there for a couple of weeks. I pray we are on a upward road now!

2. Two precious souls were saved this weekend in the gospel meeting at the Marcella Falls church where Mom and Dad and two of my brothers attend. My brother the preacher, affectionately referred to in this family as "Parson Dan," was so moved on Friday evening by the response of one lady that he reportedly was blubbering in the baptistry! A big ole strapping country boy, Dan was fortunate enough to be able to baptize the 7-month pregnant lady without incident. My other brother, Doug, (who has been mistaken for Dan's twin, even though Doug is seven years the elder) quipped that it surely is rough to see an overgrown man cry! My truly-twin brothers Don and Drew were not able to be present. Don is currently in from Germany but ailing with a nasty flu-like virus, and Drew has been off in Mexico or somewhere celebrating his first anniversary and impending fatherhood which is expected around December or January!

3. Did I mention that I am going to be an aunt again? Brooke will give us a likely-red-headed little darling at the end of the year, Lord-willing. I'm betting on a boy at this point, as she hasn't been as sick as I think you get with girls.

4. We are seeing the end of a long run in an overcrowded church building within a week or two now. With lots of elbow grease, we should be out of the old and in the new by the first of June.

5. The new car is getting reasonably good gas mileage. A fill-up is half of what it used to be and lasts about twice as long. Too bad the family vehicle does not get the same mileage.

The bad news----

1. Word came today that Mrs. Agnes passed away. She was the lady who moved into my grandmother's house when they sold it at auction. She looked so much like my grandmother, and her husband looked so much like my granddaddy that it was scary. They took over the grandparents' tire business as well, and held it until my brothers Doug and Dan redeemed it a few years ago. Ironically, Mrs. Agnes died at the same age my dear grandmother died---83!

2. Our friend Mark lost his uncle in a fiery car crash in AR yesterday. The uncle had survived cancer, but he did not survive a collision with an 18-wheeler. I'm sad for the family, and we pray for them and send them love.

3. My air conditioner died. It was an expected death, but we were hoping it would make it a few more months. It knew we just got a new car payment. It wanted to be sure our lives were never boring or without challenge.

4. It just keeps raining and storming here. Is anyone else in the whole country having wacky weather? I had nine 2nd-4th graders huddled under chairs in a 8' x 8' swatch of classroom this morning at church while hail hit the windows. Children still reeling from the tornado/hail storms of April were clinging to me or underneath their chairs, while I wondered if my husband and two sons out in the portables would be flying off like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz!" Fortunately, the hail never got too big, and all was well!

5. There is a minor stomach virus/disruption going around. I had it Wednesday, Tim had it Saturday, and it looks like Micah may be the next victim. Thankfully, no one has tossed any cookies or any other stomach contents yet, for that matter. It just hurts!

Well, that is the update for now, for all you two readers. Hope you have a wonderful week! And don't forget to keep praying!

Homeschooling

(available at http://www.homeschool.com/store/)

I know when it first occurred to me that I wanted to homeschool my children. It was right after 9/11 that it seemed like a lot of things were changed forever. Someone has said that those terrorists took away America's innocence; I know they took away any security I had!

Like the mother hen, I wanted to gather my chicks under my wings. Sadly, it is not a whole lot safer under there in reality, but for kids, the feeling of security is quite important, and I felt I had to do all I could to make it so. The tragedies of Columbine and Oklahoma City were still fresh wounds for the country at that time. In our small part of the cosmos, a drunken, abusive bus driver, incompetent teachers, and distraught children provided the final impetus to become a homeschooling family.

Our homeschooling has been "on-again, off-again," affected by circumstances, not choice. When I nearly died from complications after my fifth child was born, we had to put the kids into a private school for a time. When that was no longer expedient, they came home again, hopefully for the last time. When God says "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" and (regarding His Word) "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up...." I take Him seriously. I want to be an instrument in the Great Potter's hands, molding these little hearts.

I guess there will always be debate about the pros and cons of home education. I get asked often why I am homeschooling. In the end, each family must come to terms with what is best for the children of that family. It is as personal and private a topic as how many children a couple decide to have. No one should have the right to tell you how many kids to have or how to raise them and educate them, unless, of course, you have forfeited your rights due to abusive or irresponsible parenting. However, each parent must realize that some day, he or she will have to account for the decisions he/she made.

I think that some things are different now than they were even when I was a young girl in school, and barely one generation has passed since then! I believe that television and the internet have been two of the greatest factors in changing how we raise our children. Many parents are beginning to realize that if children are left to have all the time they want watching whatever they want on t.v., behaviors will come about in the children that are difficult or impossible to counter with any amount of teaching or hauling them to church services.

Additionally, churches have changed so much over the past few years that more of them resemble social clubs than they do a body of religious believers. We cannot expect the church to do the job with which we have been entrusted, anyway. More of us must get it in our heads that we cannot surrender that job to anyone or any organization.

Secondly, the internet has changed the way people live, and the fruit of unrestrained access is now beginning to be harvested by many a stunned and saddened parent. It is nearly impossible to hear a newscast without there being a story about someone who has been captured in an internet sting in some illicit online activity. Both adults and children have become addicted to the dark side of something that has so many wonderful uses otherwise. Yet, even with all the warnings, some parents bury their heads in the sand and pretend that their child will not become a statistic.

There is one more thing which I am not really sure about in terms of whether it is a new thing or something that has always been problematic. That would be the lack of love and communication between parents and children. We all know about "generation gaps" and times in our kids' lives where they are less likely to have meaningful conversations with us. What I am seeing, though, are families where the parents and the children rarely ever talk to one another, period! Meals are eaten on the run, and there is rarely any time to ever sit down and really talk with one another, much less share the deepest thoughts of the heart. In other families, communication is good between the parents and some of the kids, and others of the children seem like they are invisible to the parents. They somehow manage to grow up, raising themselves in effect, with no real encouragement or support from the parents.

I knew a family once where the mother and father were socialites, rarely home at all when the children were awake. The kids had everything they needed for a comfortable life---except available parents. I felt so sorry for those kids. They spent more time with sitters than they did with the man and woman who very much wanted them in the beginning. I should know; I was one of the sitters! To me, these parents sold out! They made a commitment when they created these kids, and they bought their way out of the contract about half-way through the child-rearing process. Neither of these kids have ever married or started a family. I guess they don't know where to begin.

I know why I homeschool my kids. I want them to have the best shot at heaven that they can possibly have. That is the bottom line for me. No one, not teachers or peers at public schools, or babysitters, or even my extended family members should have a greater influence on my kids than I do. Contrary to popular belief, it does NOT take a village. It takes a parent. My children are my responsibility--the greatest trust that God puts with me. Each soul gets roughly 18 years of shaping, and I had better use those years wisely, as I have already seen how fast that time passes. If we allow our kids to have more time with these people of the world than they have with their parents during the formative years, should we be surprised when they turn out just like those who really "raised" them?

Yesterday was Wednesday, and we attend mid-week Bible study on Wed. nights each week. I was feeling really yucky. I had a headache, my face hurt where I had stitches last week, and my knee had gone out on me, making it hard to go up and down the stairs. I was debating whether or not I would get out and go to church. About noon, my oldest homeschooler came to me, knowing that I was feeling poorly. He asked, "What do the girls need to wear to church tonight? Do you need something washed or pressed for them?" I did not tell him that I was thinking about not going. About 3 p.m., he started moving his younger siblings toward eating something and bathing and finding all their clothes. I never said one word to him about needing to do any of this. I thought to myself, if he can do all this now, automatically, without having to be prompted, what are the chances he will get himself dressed and to services when he is out on his on? I think the answer is that there is a pretty good chance that he will be able to make good decisions when I am not watching. As for me, I figured that if he could do all the hard stuff without even having to be asked, the least I could do was to dress myself and reciprocate the encouragement this 17-year-old had given me on this day!

Some 25 years ago, I had a first class education! By the grace of God, I attended one of the finest private schools in my state in its day! I have no doubt that I could have stepped onto "Jeopardy" straight out of high school and aced every category--even Bible! I attended over 2 years of college (which was a breeze after high school,) and got married. I have taken more classes along the way! Do you know how much I remember of all that I learned? I don't think I have retained enough to even beat my brothers at Trivial Pursuit! What I have retained are the important things. I still believe in character and honor and patriotism. I still love and respect my elders. God still comes above all else in my life.

I don't know that my children will get the same education I got. I am not sure that it matters. After all, "it's all going to burn up some day." As long as God gives me the ability to breathe and think, I will be plugging along here in my little home school, trying to instill the truly important things in the hearts of my kids.

Someone wrote this about home schooling. I thought it was a good way to end this entry:

Though I teach my children how to multiply, divide, and diagram a sentence, but fail to show them love, I have taught them nothing.

And though I take them on numerous field trips, to swim practice and flute lessons; and though I involve them in every church activity, but fail to give them love, I profit nothing.

And though I scrub my house relentlessly, run countless errands, and serve three nutritious meals every day but fail to be an example of love, I have done nothing.

Love is patient with misspelled words and is kind to young interrupters.

Love does not envy the high SAT scores of other homeschool families.

Love does not claim to have better teaching methods than anyone else, is not rude to the fourth telephone caller during a science lesson, does not seek perfectly behaved geniuses, does not turn into a drill sergeant, thinks no evil about friends' educational choices.

Love bears all my children's challenges, believes all my children are God's precious gifts, hopes all my children establish permanent relationships with Christ, and endures all things to demonstrate God's love.

Love never fails. Where there are college degrees, they will fail; where there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we teach in part. But when the trials of life come to our children, the history, math, and science will be done away and faith, hope, and love will remain; but the greatest of these is love.

----author unknown

Roles

It never ceases to amaze me that, as I get older, my hat collection is growing. No, I am not talking about physical head coverings. I am reflecting on the different roles I have and how they seem to keep multiplying.

Today was supposed to be about Mothers, I suppose. It is funny how events can cause you to change your hat faster than you would change it yourself, if only you were in control. I had a great Mother's Day. My crew was so sweet and had the appropriate cards and gifts ready to brighten my day. However, on this Sunday, I ended up being much more focused on being a daughter than being a mother, and that was a good thing.

When one of your own is hurting, I think you put on the most relevant hat and run to do what you can. I can only speak from the perspective of a woman, but I know that there are times when I wish I could be better at wearing a lot of hats at the same time. I am just not that great at multi-tasking.

When I say "one of your own," I don't just mean children. I think it goes for any group to which you belong. If you are a member of the military, you are taught to never leave anyone behind. There is not much difference in that philosophy in your church, your home, or anywhere you have living, breathing beings depending at least in part upon you.

Today, my dad continued to struggle with this congestive heart failure problem that has been plaguing him for several weeks now. He was determined to make it to church this morning, and by the hardest, he did. As his doting daughter and the eldest child, I was not sure that it was the smartest thing for him to attempt 2 hours of sitting on a hard pew when he can barely tolerate a few minutes in a Lazyboy with 3 fans blowing air in his face. By sheer will and with great determination, he dressed himself as impeccably as ever and let my little brother who is in from Germany drive him and Mom to services. My crew followed in the next vehicle. Then, with equal fight, he did not walk to the handicap entrance but rather climbed the steep wall of steps that provide the main entrance into the century-old church building.

I remembered that climb from a couple of years ago when fluid overtook my lungs after the birth of my fifth baby. It is not a climb for sissies. It has intimidated more than one weary worshipper. But the bliss on the other side of the doors makes the climb worth every labored breath.

At the front of the building in this little remote country church, brother Gerald took his place to lead us in the singing. Gerald isn't well either, but he never lets that hold him back. He admonished us not to worry what our singing sounded like to men but rather to enthusiastically sing praises to God. With those brief comments, he threw himself into the song service. Brother Gerald leads with his whole body, not just his arm. I honestly did not know if God would end up taking both Gerald and Dad right there, but I think that if He had, we would have all rejoiced that they went like that! What a way to go that would be!

When brother Gerald leads "There is Power in the Blood," (and he did!) no worshipper can leave there doubting otherwise! A few times, I thought he would fall down before he finished all the verses of some of the songs, but he did not falter.

Dad (left) and brother Gerald, when breathing came a lot easier to both of them

My other brother, the preacher, spoke eloquently about prayer and reminded us to continue in it more fervently and not to forget the thanksgiving part of it that is mentioned in so many of the verses that tell us how to pray. It was a very appropriate lesson for those of us who have been beseeching the Lord on Dad's behalf.

Then, brother George, a relatively new Christian, got up and presided at the table for the memorial of the Lord's Supper. He spoke a few words, simple and unrehearsed and so typical of one who is not immersed in years of ritualism. He shed some genuine tears and helped us to remember the One who died to give us life and hope beyond this world.

If I had any doubts about it being good for Dad to be there, they were long gone by the end of worship today.

It is hard to be anything but a mother sometimes. Being a mother often keeps me from having the time with my husband that I would like. It consumes me to the point that I have to remind myself constantly that I am a Daughter, too. I am a Daughter of the King, and I am blessed in ways that I do not fully comprehend. I understand being a daughter, mostly! I am a pretty good daughter, I think. I have lots of room to grow in being a Daughter, though, if you understand where I am coming from. I am one blessed girl to have the earthly father that I have, but I am blessed beyond words to belong to the Heavenly Father.

Yesterday, I stood in the graveyard putting flowers on my grandmother's grave. I miss her so much, and I find myself trying to convey to my kids that they need to absorb every minute of precious time with everyone cherished in their lives. My words fall on deaf ears. As Jesus said, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." They are not ready to hear it yet. They are at the age where they think everyone lives forever, including themselves. I know that by the time they are my age, if they live that long, mortality will begin to sink in a little for them, too.

I wonder how much we are like that to God. How much of what He says are we just not ready to hear yet? Which hat do we have pulled down over our ears? I hope I am a good wife, mother, friend, and servant to others, etc., but most of all, I hope I am a good Daughter, because I surely don't want to disappoint my Father.

Tuesday Top Ten

Top 10 Things I Have Been Doing Lately

1. Praying for my Dad, who is suffering with congestive heart failure and a leaky heart valve. Will you join with me in praying for him? His name is Ron.

















2. Enjoying worshiping full-time now with my church family as we prepare to move to a new building! Email me for info if you are going to be in the Murfreesboro, TN area and need a place to worship!













3. Getting a basal cell carcinoma cut off my face! This is my first experience ever with cancer of any type, and I am grateful that it was "a good kind to have" if you are gonna have it! However, I am wondering what the scar on my face is going to look like when healed. Right now, I resemble the bride of Frankenstein, minus the neck bolts! Take a good look at this picture and see if you have anything that looks like this. I would have never thought this was cancer! And wear your sunscreen!














4. Being reunited with family I have not seen in over 8 years!

5. Being reunited with my dear sweet little baby brother Don who refuses to live anywhere but Germany!













6. Rejoicing with Don's twin Drew and his wife Brooke on celebrating their first wedding anniversary on April 16th and getting the news just in time for Mother's Day that they will be new parents hopefully in December!










7. Helping Sam get to his Driver's License Test with the 214 documents they now require you to bring so that you can have a restricted license until you are 18 years old!














8. Trading our big ole gas-guzzling Expedition for this and this:















9. Traveling to Chicago and renewing some old acquaintances with family and friends!















10. Homeschooling, and trying to keep my kiddos in line!

My Kind of Town...Chicago is....NOT!

The last few weeks have once again been a blur, and blogging has been at the bottom of my priority list. I love to blog, and I wish I had the time to devote to it every single day. Sometimes, it just is not possible to justify the time spent here when so many truly important things are calling. My dad has been sick with congestive heart failure, and my mind and heart have been with him every moment that my body could not, so blogging has been cast by the wayside! I do truly apologize to my two faithful readers who keep coming back despite my poor attendance lately! (More on health issues in another blog!)

I don't think it is even possible for me to catch you up on every single thing that has happened in the past few weeks. My memory just is not that great anymore, and a lot has happened. I had surgery on my basal cell skin cancer on my face today, too, so I am really not the sharpest pencil in the drawer tonight! I guess that I will just hit the high points in no particular order.

We all took a week-long trip with Tim to Chicago last week. (I hate to announce those in advance, lest someone figure out where I live and come and rob my house! :) ) He had business, so we tagged along for the pleasure part! I have passed through Illinois many times and had a couple of trips to the Chicago area before, but it has been a few years.





It's always nice to look up and see a gun pointed at you when you enter a restaurant....The scene that greets you at the door of Portillo's, where we dined outside of Chicago




We had a nice time overall, but I am not a great fan of the Chicago area. (No offense to anyone who lives there. I am just a country girl who really feels funny in the big city!) I really thought there would be a ton of places to eat and shop, but I did not find either as plentiful and as conveniently located as they are in the area where I live in Tennessee. That really surprised me. We were out in the suburbs a bit, and every time we had to go find a place to eat, we really had difficulty finding something enjoyable for all of us.

Further, as we were up there when the immigrants took their day off to protest, we were kind of in the middle of all that. I got very frustrated one morning after stopping at two different McDonald's for drinks that the servers could not even speak enough English to get my order right. We found an alarming trend up there of numerous food service workers whose English is practically non-existent. How in the world is this country going to handle it when we are all expected to be bilingual if we want any type of service at all?

While in Chicago, we got to visit with my second cousins Amanda and her husband Tim, their baby boy David, and Amanda's little sister Abby. We worshipped with them on Sunday night and went out to a darling little pizzeria with some great Chicago-style pizza and hotdogs. That was probably the best meal we had there. We also got to see an "old" friend, Carolyn, who had recently left the church we were attending to live up there. To run into each other again so quickly showed just how small a world it really is, especially among Christians.


Cousin Amanda with my Tim


Amanda's Tim with little David, their son




Abby with her nephew, David


Sarah shows Abby her dental work...




Micah having a good time



Carolyn



Hannah and I having one of a hundred laughs with our Chicago family




Sam and Micah, fat and happy!



Our hotel was nice, and the kids and I enjoyed hanging out and catching some good movies. We drove into Chicago late one afternoon and showed the kids the major tourist spots in the city. We had fun making some pictures along the way and discussing the history of the city. It is fun to hear the oohs and aahs of the younger kids who have not seen the sites before.

After Tim's business was completed, we slipped away to Wisconsin for a day and got to see two of Tim's brothers that we have not seen in about 8 years. These two uncles of my girls had not even met them before, so it was a grand reunion for all of us. One of the brothers, Kevin, is serving in Iraq, and he was just fortunately on leave and home for two weeks. We stayed with him and his wife Jennifer, and we had a great time catching up and making a few pictures.


Reunion of 3 brothers, Tim, Kevin and Paul


Sarah does 6 years of catching up with her Aunt Jennifer!


Uncle Paul demonstrates how one big strapping fireman carries one chunky niece!


Sarah and Hannah with their hero/soldier/Uncle Kevin and beautiful Aunt Jen!




















We finally got our car situation all straightened out....I think! We now have one family vehicle, one economy car for the hubby to drive 112 miles per day, and one moderately aged but nice-looking old truck for the newest licensed driver in the house (Sam) to drive. Micah, age 12, is holding out for a Dodge Viper, or something exciting like that. I told him not to hold his breath.

Well, that's enough of an update for one blog! I'll be back soon with "the rest of the story," as Paul Harvey says!