The Joy of the Lord

So I wonder why I have laugh lines..

This is a sweet moment between

a brother and his sister

and of course Binky...

Our Thankfulness is overflowing

as these little ones start

to laugh and smile.

The Blindside

I started crying the moment I saw

the boy called Mike.

My heart so tender to the children who

don't have a home. My heart wondering

how many we can help. Wondering

how many my house can hold.

My heart aching as I watched him listen

to the voices through the night that told him over and over

he didn't belong. I so wanted to be at home

with my little boy so I could whisper how loved he is.

How many time as a child did I listen through

the night at the angry voices that penetrated

the darkness in my little bedroom? I was

just a little girl. I had no control over my situation.

I couldn't change it, I had to survive it.

Covers pulled up tight,

humming so I didn't have to hear.

The darkness seemed to never go away.

It's senseless yet it happens to

so many children.

Mike was cold. He was hungry.

He was in a crowd and no one wanted to notice him.

No one wanted to stop long enough to give of themselves.

When our busyness keeps us from noticing the needs

of others we better watch ourselves.

We need to be awake.

We need a revival of our hearts.

The busyness drowns us.

We are under water and not breathing

and yet we hardly notice that our hearts are

dead. Our love for others has died.

We fail to reach out ..

We miss it.

the way the Lord meant it to be.

It's not about money but in order to help

these days they don't ask for anything except money.

They need to be asking for loving, kind people to come

and minister but they want your money instead.

There is no more "hands on."

So our generation

has forgotten how to open hands

and pour oneself out.

This is a must see.

This movie will move you

to compassion and it will give

you hope. The reality of boys like Mike

is a truthful image and I wish

for them that they are wanted.

A frigid mama

It's cold here in the deep south. Not normal ..

The pond has been frozen over for days.

The temps are hovering low and we're barricaded in our

home with a fireplace and plenty of food.

We have spent our time wisely.

Taylor and I have been knitting hats for the girls.

Sitting looking out at the coldness laughing like

silly school girls. Telling stories and our secrets that

only she and I can share. Our stories stop as a little

guy comes in and our eyes mark our place.

We have been making homemade breads and butter

and scones, muffins, cookies...We have sat together

all of us and enjoyed each others company.

We laugh alot around here, in fact I have noticed in the past

few weeks that laugh lines are forming around my eyes. Hmmm...

I want them to be deep. I want to notice them and

think upon the blessings that have put those lines there.

In a world of beauty and perfection

I think laugh lines sum up

your life...

I go to great extremes to make my children laugh.

I sing loud and I sing silly.

I tickle alot and sing and whisper in their ears how much

their mama loves them. We have 'inside'

ride on cars that have generated hours of laughter

for all us as we watch the kids ride up and down

the hallways. I know this will be a favorite memory

for them and us.

Everyday we do special things because everyday is a gift.

This cold spell has granted me hours in the house sipping hot

chocolate and snuggling..

Oh to teach my children to enjoy the everydays and not just

the special occasion days.

To carry into their homes that you have a reason to celebrate cold days,

hot days, rainy days.........hard days.

So many of us moms stay so busy we are like the cold

temperatures out side.

Frigid.

We forget to play.

We forget to be silly.

We forget to teach our kids to love the simple things.

We're uptight and task-orientated. We're always gripping and

complaining and our kids notice.

Our husbands notice..

It's always about us

and everyone knows it...

Then we grow old

with frown and worry lines and

we wonder why our adult children don't want to be around us.

I'll stick to my laugh lines that are slowly forming around my eyes

and I'll risk it all to make them deeper and laugh longer.

Lord willing, my children will learn to laugh and when they're

older they will notice they look like me, laugh lines and all.

The light they will remember around our table

The darkness settles and we look forward to it.

The lights are turned out one by one

as we put our feast on our family table.

It's not much, a pot of soup that has

warmed our home by it's smell for hours.

*

We come looking forward to the warmth

of the food and the candles and a father

who covers us with the word of God.

All things that keep us warm.

*

There is something about looking across

a candle-lit table into the eyes of your

children. Catching a glimpse of your husbands

smile as he listens to a story told by his 3 year old

stirs my love for him and helps me remember why

I fell in love in the first place.

*

Reminding my daughter that these tradtions

in her own home

will be what's remembered.

The night time feast.

*

The homemade bread and homemade butter

that sit and wait to be enjoyed.

*

We linger.

*

We get out another candle and it's an invitation

to stay at our table for alittle longer.

We're poisoning our own waterhole

Words spoken that can't be taken back.

Words that had no business being said in the first place hanging

in the door frames of our homes..........

"They say alot of things can destroy Churches in America but one of the

most deadliest is Gossip.

Teaching our children to love one another is hard enough without them

seeing us pretend to love and then talking about the very people we are supposed

to love.

There is a church in North Carolina that has a rule. If you are caught gossiping

you are given one chance and then you're out of the Church. You and your whole family. How many churches would you and I have gone through by now?

Talking about the Elders or the pastor, the families in our church that are supposed

to be our brothers and sisters in Christ. Saying things that should not have been thought, much less said out loud.

Speech is the one area that shows more disrespect then any other area.

If we can teach our children to keep their mouths closed and not to talk so much we would teach them a lifelong lesson in humility.

Gossip kills love. Gossip kills community. Gossip will kill our homes.

You and I can't live a double standard in front of our children. We will be liars

in front of them. They will grow up to be hypocrites like us. Only pretending to love.

Only pretending to care so that the juicy tidbits can be morsels to our innermost beings.

So what is gossip? Gossip is what you say behind someones back

that you would not say to their face.

This can include gossiping about our children, about our husbands, friends.. Some people

believe that a husband and wife can gossip behind closed doors, this is not true because

the husband can defile his wife and the wife her husband.

How do we stop gossiping?

Self control! We have to keep our thoughts on the Lord and over look peoples

faults as it concerns us.

When we get in the habit of loving others their faults become

less and less."

Scott Brown Gossip Cd by vision forum

As I listened to this CD my heart was breaking.

My home has been defiled by gossip.

My heart has been defiled by gossip.

I have defiled other people by my words.

I have set a bad example for my children.

I'm usually a very positive person and look for the best in others

but on the occasion that I did not build others up I tore down.

As parents we often worry about the influences of others children on our children but if we're honest we should worry more about our own influence on our kids.

We're poisoning our own waterhole.....

Lessons I'm trying to learn on the farm....

Grow in love.

I ask that my love be more intense, more practical,

influencing every thought,word, and deed.

I want to Grow also in humility.

Seeking to lie very low and know more of my own

nothingness.....

Charles Spurgeon

Are you thinking about having a vasectomy reversal?

It was a day in February when we went.

I was so excited... Scott was nervous.

We walked in and they were getting

Scott ready for surgery and I

whispered my prayer to the Lord

to guide the hand of the surgeon.

It had been five years since we had a vasectomy.

My obgyn at the time told us we did not need to get

pregnant again. I had a condition that made me throw up the

whole pregnancy so my pregnancy's

were spent with extreme throwing up and hospital visits.

We followed our Doctors recommendations.

In the years to follow we regretted doing this.

So five years later we went back to the same Dr. and asked for it to be

reversed. He told us that it may or may not work.

I didn't hear any of that. I just wanted it reversed.

I knew God was not through giving us children.

The Dr. gave no recommendations on what to do after

we had surgery..He just kinda said

Good Luck.

Two weeks later I was pregnant.

I believe scar tissue is one of the main reason

surgery doesn't work for so many.

Even though this pregnancy ended in a miscarriage

I was pregnant once again a few months later

with Cooper. You can never imagine the feeling

of opening that pregnancy test and it coming back

positive. We were elated and scared.

Family was telling us how crazy we were and we

kept right on looking at the Lord, not them.

On December 28, 2001 Jason Cooper

was our miracle baby. He was such a gift that

the Lord gave to us. We knew the Lord would

get much Glory from this miracle. (Sometimes

He is Glorified more by not giving more children.)

But He chose to be glorified by giving us Cooper and

he was beautiful and perfect.

I have spent the last 8 years in his presence.

He is kind and easy going. He is smart and loving.

He is my Coop!

We praise God to this day

for giving us back what we had taken away from

Him. Our family size.

Since our reversal we have had Cooper, Cullen, Channie, and William

come into our family.

We would have missed out on all of them.

Let that sink in...

What could you be missing out on or who

are you missing out on?

Please consider having a vasectomy reversal.

God will be glorified by your decision and you

will put the control back where it belongs.

And who knows, you could be celebrating your reversal baby's

birthday.

If you have questions about vasectomy reversals email me and

I will give you tons of info:

americangirl1690@yahoo.com

Sweet little Josie-Claire

Josie Claire- our little sunshine!

She can light up the darkest rooms

with her heart-melting smiles.

She has started laughing at us

and herself which I tell her

is a great habit to get into to.:)

She loves her big green pacifier

and she loves to watch her

brothers and sisters play around her.

I have never been around

such a good baby as she is...(Psssst don't tell her

about my post from yesterday.)

She snuggles with you as long

as you want

and she burps like Elf.

She has stolen her mommies heart

forever....

it doesn't hurt that she slept for two nights

in a row..yipeeeeee

Little Ellie-Cate

My words fail me as I try and help you imagine

this sweet girl!

She is so easy going.

People often ask me if she ever cries

and honestly I have to say no.

She is such a precious gift and so

easy to love.

She is learning to roll over

and to smile at us.

She will follow me with her

eyes all around her room.

I can tell she loves me!

God gave her the most beautiful

color of a coffee latte.

I used to say I didn't notice color but now I say

I love the different colors in my home.

God made them all and I love the differences.

My little girl slept for 7.5 hours last night and so her

mom wants to say Thank you~

Happening on the Farms

The art of baking bread is so good for my senses.

Watching my daughter as she fusses over her loaves.

The sun streaming in as she gently lays her bread out to rise.
I feel I have been taken back hundreds of years.

The smell, the sights, the sounds of laughter.

I bet my grandmothers kitchen smelled this way.

Her hands kneading her bread and putting it out to share.

The flour spread on my table like snow on a landscape.

I could gently blow it off but I'll leave it there until supper time.

The sun is going down and the shadows are stretching out

their arms over our farm.

Lantern ready to be lit on the mantel.

Sometimes I just get tired of fake light.

I like watching the flicker of the flame bounce

off my walls. I like seeing my kids eyes through

the candle light.

I like blowing it out at the end of the

night and drifting to sleep in the darkness..

Good Bread and candlelight

life just couldn't get much

better than this!