Green Eggs and Ham

Nov. 4, 2008 - The Election

My young, warped, wacky, yet wiser- than- his- actions- show, pastor sent this out yesterday. I think that it is spot on and very important. No matter the outcome of the election--God IS in control!

Dear Friends,

For months now my email Inbox has been besieged by nearly hysterical warnings about what will happen if Barack Obama becomes President. I have been encouraged to be worried, afraid, concerned, prepared for disaster, and a whole host of other maladies if this happens. I do not deny the importance of this election, but it seems to me that we need a dose of perspective. So here, on the eve of the election, I would like to start my own email concerning this election. It’s a “True/False” test. I’d like for all of us to take it. Feel free to email it on to whomever:

Wyman Richardson
Pastor, First Baptist Church
Dawson, Georgia
pastorwyman@windstream.net

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my primary citizenship will still be in this order – (1) the Kingdom of God, (2) America, not vice-versa.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the tomb will still be empty.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the cross, not the government, will still be our salvation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our children will still be more concerned with whether or not we spend time with them than with who is President.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my neighbor will still be my neighbor, and loving him/her will still be the second greatest commandment. (Do you know the first?)

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, “Jesus Is Lord” will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control.

How did you score?

So be sure to vote, but also remember who you are and who He is.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Oct. 28, 2008 - 30 Days

A sweet friend has included me an a 30 day challenge to honor my husband. When I first read her email, I thought, "This might be a neat thing to do if I have time. But I honor (DH) all of the time so it's not really a big deal." Then I read the rest of her explanation when I had more time; then I read Day 1. Wow. I was really being haughty. And God has really "tsk, tsked" me.

While I thought that I was honoring him, God is showing me that I'm really neglecting him. I am doing everything for everyone else and he is settling for the "left overs". And we are only just now heading into the busy season.

So for the next 30 days, I am asking God for the power to stick to this and learn to honor my husband in the way that honors Him.

Thanks Lisa! You are a God-send.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 27, 2008 - Counting My Blessings....

God has truly enriched me with blessings beyond what I deserve. So today, I would like to thank God for giving me a life that is so much more than I could have ever wanted. It is not the life that I thought that I would live and for that I am so grateful!!

Blessings ya'll!!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 12, 2008 - College

J1 moved in to his dorm on Monday. I was at work and so was his dad so there was no "goodbye". Although he wouldn't have wanted that anyway.

And, being completely honest, it is time for him to go. I had been wondering if I would be "okay" with him leaving home. I wondered if I would cry or if I would be lost without one of my babies in the house. When dh woke me yesterday, he said, "Well, J1 is leaving today.". My first reaction was "Whoo Hoo!" How awful. I do feel guilty about that. Moms shouldn't have that reaction, right?

Over the past year, he has grown and he has grown away from us. Not in the negative sense but in the sense that he can now orchestrate his own life. He's no longer the sweet towheaded little boy who crawled into my lap daily so that we could read the Bible together. He's no longer the sensitive one who would come pat me on the back and hug me tight because I cried at a commercial (now he just makes fun of me.) He no longer needs his mom to guide him. The season of his growing up has come to a close and he no longer has the same priorities in life. He is now working on creating a life for himself and for his future family. That is the way God ordered things, isn't it?

It all just seemed to happen so fast. 18 years certainly flew by.

I think that I'll spend even more time with the others...while they still need me.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Aug. 8, 2008 - Sometimes I don't want to be a grownup anymore

Life has been busy and hectic as usual lately but it has also been bittersweet. I have been reminded many times in the past few weeks of exactly how fragile and how precious life is. It is a wonderful gift from God.

Someone posed the question to me the other day that if someone you loved passed away and was in the presence of God, yet God gave them the choice to come back to this earth and their family until a later time, would it be easier if you knew that it was their choice to stay with God? I think that's a grownup question. I think that kids would take it on faith that being in heaven with God would make everything alright. Grownups tend to agree but still want their loved one with them. I have seen the toll that aching from the loss of a mother, father, brother, sister and even a child has on those left behind.Some manage the loss with incredible faith, grace, and courage yet at the same time they exhibit the hard reality of how difficult it is to go forward with a large empty place in their heart. A large hole that will not be filled on this side of heaven. But the promise of heaven sustains them. So, would knowing that God had given their loved one the choice, yet they chose to live in the presence of God instead of this earthly place for a while longer, would that make living without them easier? My mind says yes; my heart says I'm glad that I'm not in the position to know.

My heart still breaks and my tears still flow for those that are now waiting on heaven to be with the ones that they love. And I pray that the love of our Lord fills that hole to sustain them until then.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jul. 13, 2008 - Archery Success

Yesterday we went to North Ga to shoot in the Georgia Games Tournament. 5 out of the 6 of us shot . I declined since I haven't had time to even pick up my bow in weeks. So I sat under the tent and coached J3 and J4. (And I was the only one to get sunburned??!!! Not even J1 who is on antibiotics that warn against sun-exposure got a burn....Just me!)

It was a good tournament for the kids. J3 was very serious and focused on her shooting....which was a first. And it showed in her shooting. She scored a 741 out of 900 and brought home the gold medal. J4 did very well also. He lost focus several times but he also posted a personal best score of 616 and brought home the gold for his class.

Dh shot in the adult men's compound class and posted a personal best which was good enough to place 3rd. I am very proud of how he shot. He's really become competitive instead of just shooting for fun. (Competitive- Not in a negative sense. Just that he now cares about his score and practices his form to make it better.)

J2 was suppose to shoot in the intermediate compound class but decided to ask if he could move up a class and shoot the adult men's compound. They let him. He was disappointed in his shooting. He was using arrows that he doesn't like to shoot. They don't group like his favorites. (I never did ask him why he was shooting those instead of his regular ones. He may not have had enough for the tournament.) Anyway, his score wasn't what he wanted but it was enough for 2nd place.

And J1....well he had his own challenges. Friday morning we took him to the Dr. He has an abcess that is actually going to require an appointment to see if it needs to be surgically removed. Until then he is on 2 antibiotics and pain medicine. We don't do dr.s often and this is the same son that dislocated his shoulder at church camp 2 weeks ago and put it back in place by himself rather than go to the infirmary. When he agreed to go to the dr. we knew he was hurting. ....So anyway, after leaving the house at 5 am to get to the range, taking the darvocet, and shaking the entire shoot, J1 still managed to win the adult men's compound division by a margin of almost 30 points. He posted a score of 848 out of 900. He wasn't happy with that score, but all things considered, He did great.

I am proud of how they did.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 28, 2008 - My Crazy Life is having a contest!

Steph at My Crazy Life is offering the new TOS Planner to anyone who blogs about the planner and then drops by to leave a comment on her blog. On Sunday, July 6th, her little one will draw one of the entries out of a bucket. Sounds easy enough and the planner sounds wonderful!!

If you'd like to check out the contest for yourself, her blog can be found at My Crazy Life.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 27, 2008 - Can't Sleep...

The big guys are at an archery tournament and Samson isn't here to let me know if anything is "off".I've washed the dishes, cleaned the oven, wiped the cabinets, washed and dried sheets, remade the bed, swept the floors. I'm debating whether or not to start cleaning the bathrooms. If I keep going at this pace, I won't have anything to do on Saturday.

I hardly ever have problems sleeping when dh is here. I guess it's a good thing that he's not a businessman who is gone a lot. I'd be a walking zombie.

TV is no help....there is NOTHING on fit to watch. Even the news is a repeat.

And to top everything off...I can't think of anything to say.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 14, 2008 - My Big, Gentle Giant....

Who was so very scared of the dark and of storms, but don't let ANYONE come between him and his family.

I miss him terribly already.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 14, 2008 - Samson

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 14, 2008 - Samson, 2000-2008

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Jun. 5, 2008 - Graduation 2008

Isn't he handsome?

Aren't I very happy that graduation is over!!!

Not that he is "finished" with his homeschool career, but happy that the whole ceremony thing is over. It was a lot of work but it was worth it to me. I hope that it was memorable for him. I hope that he felt honored and a sense of accomplishment.

Me, I'm just glad to not have to worry about what else could go wrong. It was touch and go for awhile but many people came through in a clinch to make things happen. And because of them, it was a wonderful service.

Isn't that the way with life though? You get something started and it gets going along, then it gets faster and faster until soon you are racing along at breakneck speed afraid to jump from the train. Then, in panic, you call out for help because you realize you can't slow things down by yourself and God reaches down and pulls back on the throttle. And the whole time you never realized how fast things were going.

So far I haven't gotten teary eyed at the thought of ds graduating. I guess that I really haven't had the time to think of it in those terms yet. Or maybe I am just not facing it yet. Who knows?
Dh has though. As we went through old pictures, trying to condense down ds's 18 years into a 15 frame slide show for graduation, dh sprouted several tears. He even had to leave the room a couple of times. As he said at graduation, he's really going to miss his early morning hunting buddy.

I won't miss his moaning and groaning about math and/ or science but I will miss our discussions about the Bible, literature, and current events. (Although, I don't think that his college professors will be as easily distracted from Algebra by discussions of Calvinism v. Armenianism as his mother was. )

Sorry for the randomness of the post. Coherent thought hasn't yet returned to my brain. Life slows down next week so maybe by then.

Blessings to all!

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

May. 8, 2008 - My second baby turned 16....

I was always told that they'd be "grown and gone" before I knew it.

It is true. It has hit me hard recently that my oldest is graduating, my second is driving, my third is developing and my baby can read. I just feel like I have missed a lot of time with them and there isn't much time left. I can not fathom how "regular" school folks deal with that sense of not having a lot of time left with their babies before they leave the nest. Maybe they don't have such a sense of that since, in a way, they dealt with that the first day their little ones stepped onto the big yellow bus. I don't know. Maybe they have an even larger sense of it and that's why they have the "empty nest syndrome".

Don't get me wrong. I am enjoying watching them grow up. I can just sense that a change is coming. I've enjoyed teaching my littles so much and I really have loved having them with me the majority of the time. I hate to see it come to an end.

To everything there is a season.......

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Apr. 29, 2008 - Yippee!!

I have 2 pages!! Here! on the blog!

I said one time before that my goal was to have archives. I don't know when it happened, but I just looked back over my entries and I had TWO pages. It took 3 years to get them but they are there.

I know, ridiculous thing to get excited about, but I am.

Now, I am off to teach these kids something before I head to work this afternoon.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Apr. 29, 2008 - A truck, college and graduation, Oh My!

My oldest finally bought a truck. He has wanted a truck for many years now. NEEEEEDDDDEEEDDD a truck, he told me. Now he has one. 3 days after he got it, he came to me and said, "Can I borrow your van? Gas is expensive and I need to go XYZ." "Welcome to my world, son!" Curtailed a lot of that "I need to go....." now that when he needs to go, he can go and pay for his own gas.

He looking at colleges now. He has applied to one nearby. Or I should say half applied. They need a portfolio from me and I haven't had time to put it together yet. I'm debating on whether or not I should just let oldest do it. After all, he's a legal adult now. But as he's proven in the first application process, forms are not his thing. <<>> Maybe I should delay his graduation. He'd love me for that.

• 1 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 7, 2008 - In other news....

My washer and dryer are on the fritz.

About 3 weeks ago, my dryer started acting up. It won't stop tumbling. It goes through all of its cycles perfectly but the only way to stop it is to open the door or unplug it. It's a minor inconvenience that I can live with until I figure out how to fix it, right?

Well, last Saturday, as I was washing a load of MY clothes, the washer decided that it could no longer drain. And that it would lock the door so that I could not retrieve my clothes (it's a front loader). I manipulated it enough that I finally got it opened and hung them out on the line but it did take 3 days for them to dry.

Since we live in the boonies, dh had to call around to find someone to come out and look at them. They came on Tuesday; looked at them; went back to the shop; called back with an estimate. $220 to fix the washer and $220 to fix the dryer. I told them to order the part for the washer but I had a clothes line to use instead of the dryer, besides, I don't mind bending down to unplug the thing several times a day. In fact, I could probably use the exercise.

Since they had to order the part for the washer, it'll be next week before they can come back and install the thing. Mount Never-Finished will be too tall to scale by then.

And, my 15yr old is in the bathroom now washing his jeans in the bathtub. He says that he needs them tonight. I tried to tell him that they are are going to take forever to dry. Especially since it is forecast for us to receive 3 inches of rain today. He'll learn one day to heed the words of his mother.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 7, 2008 - Lots of friends in need right now.....

I don't know if it's a "southern thing" but I've always heard that things happen in three. Usually, when we have a death in the family, we walk around on tiptoes waiting on two more. (yeap, I know, very morbid.) It just seems to happen that way.

Well, before Christmas last year, I learned that a friend's 4 yr old was diagnosed with leukemia after a bout with strep. Then another friend was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. Now another close friend's very young son has been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of epilepsy that is caused by an inoperable tumor in the brain.

I so hate seeing people in pain, much less people that I love. But I do know that God is using their experiences to His glory. And, even though this sounds selfish, their problems have put me before the throne of grace like I should have been before. I had been asking God to help me have a more constant prayer life. I just didn't want Him to use the people that I love to do it. Know what I mean??

Anyway, Whoever reads this, if you think about it and have room on your prayer list, please pray for my friends. God has done amazing things in each one of their situations already.

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Mar. 5, 2008 - The Pastor and the Business Card

Okay, I got this in an email today and I just had to share.

A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door.

Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10."

Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked." A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was at home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door.

Therefore, he took out a business card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door.

When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10."

Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter. Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked."

I laughed so hard . I know that this has happened to me(having someone come to the door when I was just getting out of the shower).

• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Feb. 24, 2008 - Pig Shows are Officially over!

February is brutal. To be the shortest month, we seem to be able to pack the most events in to it. It all becomes such a blur that at the end of the month, all we can do is turn around and say "Huh? We did what?" It started with an archery tournament for the big guys then went on to 4-H Sr. DPA. My oldest, J1, attended his one required DPA and returned home victorious. He placed first in the Target Sports category and will now move on to State Congress this summer. I have always told my children that I would only require them to do DPA one time and then after that its completely up to them. Since this was J1's senior year and he has blown off DPA for the last 6 years, he was required to do a project. He had a blast and is now sorry that he didn't listen to his wise mother and do one sooner.

After we finished with DPA we moved on to the finish of the 4-H Market Hog project. J1 placed 1st in Showmanship at the County Market Hog show winning the coveted belt buckle. He has been trying for that one since he started showing. Then at the State level, his pig placed 6th in its class. Pretty good considering our $50 pig was up against $500+ pigs. J3's pig was another runner this year so she was penalized in showmanship but her pig did place 1st in it's class at county level and at area level and then went on to place 2nd in its class at State. She was a pretty pig, just a little looney.

Along with DPA and hog shows, we have had a "kid" explosion at the farm. All of our goats gave birth so we have 4 sets of twins and one set of triplets. They are all so very cute. I'll have to figure out how to post pictures on here again. I've done it before so I know that it can be done.

Well, now that February is almost over, our schedule slows down a smidge. J1 will start visiting colleges and getting applications in. I've got to get busy planning a graduation ceremony. Baseball season has started and DH is suppose to have his first game tomorrow. In my job, I'll be working with Cloverleaf DPA and the Horse show. And archery season has started......