well, this has been quite the year...I was sitting here musing this evening on how Blaise Pascal, a poem about a Chambered Nautilus and connect the dots can have anything remotely in common...and yet, they can.

We have had so many changes over the last year, so many heart responses to a loving Heavenly Father and even greater desires to be with Him and love Him, can the heart truly be at rest here in this state...and yet I know it can and does, when it is resting in God's will for that heart for that moment in time, even if it patters a little faster, the blood flowing a little stronger in response to the idea of being with that Perfect One, in that perfect place...someday...someday....but now, we are to work for Him, take pleasure in Him, take pleasure in what He entrusts to our care and be happy. 

And I am.

So how do old musings by some dead guy, a poem by some dead guy and a connect the dots have anything in common...I will have to think some more on this and get back to this essay topic later, but trust me, they do.

Whee!!!!  We are down to one little female fawn puggie, which we have been tempted to keep!  So we are now looking forward to a long weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's over the 4th of July!  The summer is flying by and I can't seem to slow it down, so I guess I just need to hang on and enjoy the ride.

Went to and loved the Above Rubies retreat 2 weeks ago, Psalm 113 was the opening teaching about who God saves from the ash heap, the poor.  Those that realize how much they need Him, the bankrupt of spirit...those are the ones He delivers from the ash heap and sets with the princes of the land.  She said the princes were those people who are open-hearted and generous....I loved her expounding on just those few verses.  Now as a rescued child of God, He may use me to reach out to the poor that are in the ash heap and share with them the hope that I have found in Jesus Christ, my Savior, my God.

Which leads me to the next cool news, my husband got us tickets go hear Aaron Shuust (sp?) for my birthday, I love his music!!!!  And only $5 a ticket, can't beat that!

God is good all the time and He does all things very well!  How is it that I can get so faint-hearted as to forget?

The pug puppies I must admit are adorable and are at that cuddly, nauseatingly cute stage where they are learning to eat solid food and spin in circles at the same time...

but, I will not be sad to see them find good homes!  The least said on this the better...3 puppies of the last litter wasn't as, pee-u, stinky as 7 puppies!

Cookie has found a home with a couple who has no children, one other dog, 2 1/2 acres and a few cat friends...the gal came and picked her up yesterday, with no fuss and no fanfare....and it made me sad.  I loved that big old dog, but I must admit the reclamation of my leather couch and uninterrupted nights of slumber are helping to assuage my pain!  So Jenni, be assured that I think, and hope, that she has gone to a sweet home where she will be much-loved!  I told the gal she could bring her back if they all didn't fit together like a sweet jigsaw puzzle...btw, your vacation sounded like loads of fun....we are planning our July mom's trip to Dallas if you are still interested in going.....I want to go to that IKEA store....get my Christmas shopping done early.....

Jillian has arrived safely to spend the summer with us while she interns with Allison and the rest of the church college gang, and she fits in with us like peas in a pod!

Also, anyone who likes Above Rubies, Nancy Campbell and some of her children are coming to Oklahoma this month and doing a weekend mom's camp...look at their website if interested.....

Zips past me blithely,

Grinning his big, sly grin,

Aims, shoots, fires.....gets me!

Wants to be the smartest,

Sits thinking lofty thoughts high in her fort,

Settles for the cutest.

   Pugs are thriving....I am finishing God's Smuggler about Brother Andrew, I highly reccomend this book, reminiscent of Corrie Ten Boom's walk with the Lord and the sweet child like faith we must have in order to have that sweet aroma of obedience...ahhh, refreshing to the spirit within to be encouraged to walk the same way and pray for His direction in everything for our lives...God is so wonderful!  He does everything well.

And to think, if we are born again, He is our Father, who can understand it?

Sweet little Lizzie, Jacob's fawn pug, had her puppies last Wednesday, seven to be exact.  I am still in awe that many came from her.  Hannah and I midwifed the puppies and it was a great experience for both of us.  Lizzie didn't need much help, but we did suction the pups noses and mouths with a  bulb, she cleaned them up.  Interesting but gross fact:  The mama dog eats the afterbirth when the water breaks.  The pup delivered in the unbroken sack, you could see little paws pushing on the membranes, and then the mama dog, and Hannah in this case, helped remove the membranes.  We didn't let her eat all of them, because last time it made her sick. As she removes them from the pup it jiggles and jostles them till they let out a yelp and cry, which also helps clear out their little lungs...so amazing how it all fits together for their good.  What an amazing God we serve!

She is now nursing 7 little puppies, 4 black and 3 fawn, they all seem healthy and she is an excellent mother...we are blessed.

and so I haven't written on here in a little while...last week I survived a grueling 3 day garage sale at a sweet friends' house...they are my 2nd family and I love them deeply, their friendship means so much to me.  They are a constant presence in a shifting life, an earthly picture of God's neverchanging presence in my life.

     I have been overawed lately at God's great faithfulness in my life....from His saving me to His shaping of me over the last 15 years.  And the impact, both good and bad according to how I have reacted to His touch in my life over that time. 

And mostly I am awed over the fact that even when my reaction has been bad, He has remained faithful to me throughout...gently leading me to repentance time and again....what sweetness, what love, what enduring grace...

and I am thankful.

Sunday early evening we went to some friends house who live in the country...we shared a sweet dinner and fellowship....and we got to learn how to milk a cow!

She is a pretty jersey...

well, imagine a pretty dark brown-faced jersey in this spot, hah,hah!

please pray, Hannah's b'ball team is spending the night, I think a water balloon fight is on the horizon......

today became bread experimenting day...Hannah and Haley ground some wheat for flour and then  made 1/2 batch of a recipe that makes 6 loaves...from this they made a calzone with spaghetti sauce and feta crumbles, yum, turned out really good.  Then they made a batch of monkey bread...double yum.  Also some small wrapped smokies...triple yum.  Needless to say we are full of dough!

I think I need a nap after all of that!

Etta and Lydia are over as well, and everyone is now watching a movie and winding down from finishing school and playing outside.

The weather looks like rain, but I haven't found a sprinkle yet!

We took Lizzie, our fawn pug,  in to Dr. Denham, our vet, to get x-rayed and discovered she is only about 40 days along....so he said to bring her in again in 10 days and he would do it again for gratis if she hasn't had the pups...she just looked really big.  When she stops fitting through the doggie door we know she is getting really close and we aren't there yet. 

Here is a picture of two of her last litter of pups:

has a beautiful illustration of our Heavenly Father's love for us in her book The Shaping of a Christian Family:  How My Parents Nurtured My Faith. 

      She writes, "One day when our baby Valerie was a few weeks old, Jim sat down in a reclining chair and laid her on his chest, murmuring into her little ear and patting her.  After a while, thinking her asleep, he fell silent and dropped his arms to his sides, reveling in the slight weight of the tiny child on his body.  She lay quiet for a moment or two, then let out a sudden lusty wail.  Laughing, Jim clasped her immediately in his arms again and assured her of his presence.  Not feeling his hands upon her, she had, we supposed, lost the sense of "belongingness" and thought herself forsaken, when in fact she was lying as secure as ever on her father's bosom."

     Since I was not raised in a Christian home, there are simple ways that I am gleaning that could easily be incorporated into our lives...from bible reading with dad every evening to Saturday night prayer with him alone.  Her parents and grandparents examples of sold-outedness (for want of a better word) are evident by their actions....do my actions exhibit this same professed "devotion" to my Lord and what He wants?

     By God's grace, I pray so.

well, time-consuming anyway.....the weather was just right yesterday to start pulling out some fencing.  Now, I just need to find the time to take the load to the dump. Yee-hah.

We had our monthly homeschool meeting yesterday and decided on the date for our annual end of year graduation dinner.

I will have two that get to have "extra-fun" that evening.  Rinnah will be graduating from kindergarten and Hannah is graduating 8th grade.

Where does the time go, I think I saw it whisk around the corner, slide down the slide and dart past the shadow of the big tree in front, but I never can catch it!

Anyway, it will be a fun evening with lovely friends.

Smiling little elf,

flittering in joy of You,

Like a butterfly

We sure could use some more...today is overcast, so I am hopeful that we will get some showers if not thunderstorms.

I was reading through The Voice of the Martyrs magazine for April of this year and Tom White the director of the organization had a concise picture of what I believe.

He and his cousin, Tom Lowe, were discussing theology...and his cousin said, "I didn't know any theology when I was saved.  I didn't even know what the word 'saved' mean.  But I knew I was lost."

They started comparing nail guns, his cousin is a contractor, who builds churches and fire stations, to Christian work.  " All nail guns must have oil.  All of them must be kept clean on the inside, or they won't produce nails.  They must also have a source of power.  There are several brands....a powered-up coil nailer can really shoot those things out.

We laughed at the ridiculous prospect of a group of roofers or carpenters stopping work to argue about their favorite brand of nail gun and nobody pulling their trigger to nail anything down.  I guess nothing would ever get built.  It is so easy to forget we are called to His kingdom as workers when we are side-tracked with our 'brand'  differences."

He then goes on to talk about Richard Wurmbrand, who was persecuted for his faith in Russia and then founded VOM.  Mr. Wurmbrand said, "Give us the tools, and we will pay the price."  Are we so soft and cushy here in the U.S. that our complacency keeps us from hearing God's voice and following Him wholehearedly....Tom White goes on to ask, "What is easier to find:  a motor, a boat, boxes of gospels or a Christian who is willing to leave their family to walk into the valley of the shadow of death?"

I am afraid that in America, the answer is all to easy to guess.....may God have mercy on our complacency and wake us up!  Some time the rug needs a good shaking to be cleaned and to remember, it is a rug.

St. Augustine writes,

      "But when I love You, what do I love?  It is not physical beauty nor temporal glory nor the brightness of light dear to earthly eyes, nor the sweet melodies of all kinds of songs, nor the gentle odour of flowers and ointments and perfumes, nor manna or honey, nor limbs welcoming the embraces of the flesh; it is not these I love when I love my God.

     Yet there is a light I love, and a food, and a kind of embrace of my inner man, where my soul is floodlit by light which space cannot contain, where there is sound that time cannot seize, where there is a perfume which no breeze disperses, where there is a taste for food no amount of eating can lessen, and where there is a bond of union that no satiety can part.

    That is what I love when I love my God."

sigh....double sigh, better......amen and amen.

Lovely, honest soul

Constantly leans upon You

With her steadfast faith.

from Confessions, "When I am confessing not what I was but what I am now, the benefit lies in this:  I am making confession not only before you with a secret exaltation and fear and with a secret grief touched by hope, but also in the ears of believing sons of men, sharers in my joy, conjoined with me in mortality, my fellow citizens and pilgrims, some who have gone before, some who follow after, and some who are my companions in this life. 

They are your servants, my brothers, who by your will are your sons and my masters.   You have commanded me to serve them if I wish to live with you and in dependence on you......

For my part, I carry out your command by action and words; but I discharge it under the protection of your wings.  It would be far too perilous responsibility unless under your wings my soul were submissive to you.  My weakness is known to you.

I am a child.

He is one and the same who begat me and watches over me.  You yourself are all my good qualities.  You are the omnipotent one, who are with me even before I am with you."

I am your child and for that I say, "Thank You."

We are blessed!

We kidnapped my husband last night and took him to the infamous Joe's Crabshack!  He was made to wear a copper contraption on his head that contained antennae, a chain pull switch that turned on a light bulb, little flags for America and Norway, an fm radio with ear buds and goofy Mr. Magoo glasses!  It was an awesome creation...Kudos to the Sees for that one!

Thank you!  You all are such a treasure trove of love and friendship! 

My wonderful in-laws made the day special by coming down for lunch and then babysitting the children til we got home!

We are blessed!

A friend who is going to our wonderful OCHEC homeschool convention for the first time asked if 2 days was overwhelming and this was my response....well, perhaps I have paraphrased it a tad.....

     First, read the manual.  Then decide which hunters have the knowledge you need for your upcoming season.  Don't be  overwhelmed by their, oftentimes, superior experience or their farseeing vision, that is what they have come to share!...Choose prayerfully and wisely for this can impact your future adventurers in awesome ways.  Remember to forage for food and rest frequently and then begin the hunt for  the materials you desire....

     Ah, is that my MCP math lurking in a fiction bin, not his normal grazing area, but such a deal, cheaper than Mardels.

I spot a pair of rare G.A.  Henty books, those will look wonderful mounted on my bookshelves! 

     Feeling like a conqueror I press on, quietly and stealthily I navigate past the friendly natives, aha, only in the jungle will you find herds of fiction, where you can hand select that semesters course of fare to accompany the much loved LLATL (Learning Language Arts through Literature) program.  What a delicacy!

     Perhaps some of the locals would like to sell their plastic beads, but keep your eye on the prize, the elusive Webster's 1828 dictionary.....only add the baubles if they will truly add to the growth of your future hunters! 

      Remember when the river is choppy and your canoe feels like it might break apart or capsize...you have the Great Adventurer right beside you who already knows this river and calling out to Him will bring quick and sure guidance which will keep you afloat!

I hope this is helpful for you first time adventurers at the jungle convention.

Pretty, pretty girl

Born in joy, yet born in pain.

Sweet smile of my heart!

A Haiku for you this beautiful day, hope yours is a blessed one!

love, mum