Wordless Wednesday

You can roll over the pictures with the cursor for words.

He is fine.  It isn’t broken.

Thank GOD, Grandma and Grandpa were there so that all of us didn’t go to the ER, after the game, with no naps… now that would be a blog entry.

Instead, it ended up being a nice, quiet, peaceful, time with just Zach and I.  And since he is okay, I can say it was good!

UPDATED TO ADD:  Forget it… the hospital just called to say that it IS broken.  A non-displaced fracture at the base of his thumb.  

Praising and Thanking God anyway.  It could have been his HEAD!

To see more Wordless Wednesday blogs, or to play along click here.

Pam

How fun is this!!

Remember last week when I was blog-keeping and posted this contest?

Remember that I had won the cd that I gave away on the radio call in show, The Family Name Game, on Star 88.3?

Remember that the cd they sent me for my prize was Point of Grace, How You Live.  One I already had?

Remember that I gave away the second copy to the first person who left a comment that had never left a comment before.

Amber of Life with Murmer was my winner that day, with her quick commenting skills!

I had two new commenters that day.  I was sad that I couldn't give them both one.  I even left the second one, Rachel of Nathan and Rachel a comment telling her I wished I could send her one too!

If I had been smart, witty, and savvy, I would have said that the contest is open to all new commentors.  And that I would choose from all of the comments that day at random. 

But, I'm not so smart and quick.  And I often think of much better things later, like when I am trying to sleep at night, that I could have said that were much more clever than what I did say!  Oh well.

Anyway.  I have a second chance.

Saturday.  I get the mail.  In it is another package from Star 88.3.  In the package is another CD.  I did not win another contest.  Someone is not keeping great records over there I would imagine.  For a moment I was hopeful that I would still get a a free cd out of the whole deal.

Nope.

It was Point of Grace, How You Live.  Again.

So... now... a chance to give another CD away!  I would like to give it to Rachel, of Nathan and Rachel.  But, if I don't here from her before I am ready to go to the post office in the morning, I will choose from all the new commenters that leave me a comment before tomorrow morning!  How about that!?!

So, here is your second chance all your blog-lurkers!!  Post me a comment and you could win this CD!  And who knows, Star 88.3 may send me more and I can keep giving them away! 

Pam

Tackle It Tuesday #7

Well, I didn’t have many high expectations of Tackle it Tuesday today.   I figured that the way things have been going for me, I should have low expectations and not plan to get much accomplished.  Turns out it was a good plan.  I got more done than I thought I would!

After dishes, bathroom detail, and bed making… laundry was calling…  it never ceases to amaze me with it’s abundance…

This is my progress for the day…

After I had all the laundry folded I could, I decided I would tackle a couple other neglected areas of the basement…

The basement kitchen… used for… gathering clutter… clothes that need boxed and given away, mailed, or stored.  Clothes that people have left at our house.  Unmatched socks.  Trash.  Toys.  Easy to just stick them there and move on to other areas of the house.

And this area.  Where the kids play their video games.  Always in need of clean up.

And… I did it!

The things that were here are now mostly here.

Boxes to mail.  Bags of things to give away.  Things to return.  Now they are all on their way!!

And the TV area… now has mom’s cleaning touch. 

I still wanted to list some thing for sale on e-bay.  That didn't happen.

And I didn't work on my kitchen cabinets, but I did that last Friday for awhile.  See the last editon of "Your Gonna Miss This... Moment" for details on how that all went!

This is what my kitchen looks like right now... cupboard doors off both sides now.

My brother-in-law took all the handles and hinges and is painting them for me!

See old editions of Tackle it Tuesday for more on my kitchen! 

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"  --Phil. 4:13

Pam

Click here to play along or read more Tackle it Tuesday posts!

A new day… New mercy…

Yesterday, the choke was back.  Obviously.

Yesterday, I read what Brent Riggs wrote on their family's blog as they go through the cancer of their daughter Abby.  And then I read what MckMamma wrote about her latest tests on her unborn child with a heart condition.

Can I confess to having a really, really, cynical, ugly, awful thought?

I thought… “yeah, I used to write stuff like that… talk to me in three years.”

This post is in answer to that thought.

A thought that obviously came from the enemy of God.

A thought that the enemy of God really wants me to believe about my God.

That after three years of fighting for my marriage and family that my God has not and will not come through for me.

Brent Riggs, said this in his post, “It's been said that true courage is brave action despite fear. I would say the same principle applies to faith. Real faith, is the CHOICE to trust God despite circumstances that challenge faith. In light of that, I would say to you: Nope, not faking.”

MckMamma said this in her post, “And now, I will bring out the big guns. You see, as much of the Refiner's Fire as I have been going through lately, God's voice is still clearly calling out to me, saying, "Be patient child, I am not finished with you yet." All the struggles and ups and downs our family has been through lately are not the end. God has more in store for us and He wants me to keep clinging to Him alone!!”

In answer I want to tell the Riggs family, and MckMamma’s family, that even if your trial lasts way longer than you can imagine enduring… that same God is still going to be there.

He is going to give you new mercy for each day that you are in that fire.

He is going to give you strength over and over and over again when you just can’t do it any more.

He is going to bring peace and joy into your life when peace and joy shouldn’t be there.

He is going to carry you when you cannot move yourself.

Unfortunately, the enemy of our souls is still there also, trying to cast doubt over every moment that goes by.

And I would say again today…

“Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’" –Luke 18:27

Pam

Thanks… again…

How many times am I going to let the circumstances kick me to the curb?

How many times am I going to let depression come in and steal my joy?

Is this just the way life has to be until we die?  Or is there a way not to live on a roller coaster?

One of my friends recommended I read Psalm 77 out of the message Bible…  This part was quite relevant…

I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens. I found myself in trouble and went looking for my Lord;
      my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal.
   When friends said, "Everything will turn out all right,"
      I didn't believe a word they said.
   I remember God—and shake my head.
      I bow my head—then wring my hands.
   I'm awake all night—not a wink of sleep;
      I can't even say what's bothering me.
   I go over the days one by one,
      I ponder the years gone by.
   I strum my lute all through the night,
      wondering how to get my life together.

Recommended reading.

It doesn’t even have to be circumstances, to get all off balance and depressed.  Sometimes it is just fear of what could happen.

Today I found, that I knew, what I was, or felt, like I was, all worked up about doesn’t even matter.  It didn’t help though.

I was still all out of sorts.  Still grumpy.  Still overwhelmed.  Still frustrated.  Still feeling like I wanted out of my own skin.

Yelling!  I was pretty sure if I heard someone say “MOM” once more, my head would explode in some nuclear bomb type explosion.

Blah.  I hate that.

I feel like the oppression has lifted again for the most part tonight.  

I thank you for the prayers.

I give God all the HONOR AND GLORY.  I don’t know how HE does it. 

I sure don’t give him much to work with.

I guess that’s why HE’s God and all HE has to do is speak and things existed.

Things like Hope.

Faith.

Trust.

and the determination to go on one more day…

Pam

Monday, Monday…

Hi. 

I’ve been in such a rotten mood for the past day or so that I have not wanted to write and complain.

So, I’m not writing and complaining.

I’m writing to ask that you pray for me to get out of this slump.

To get through another week.

Another day.

Another hour.

You know that saying, “when mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy”?  It works this way too.  When mama is a grump, everyone else seems to have a licence to be one too.

Deadly poison.

I am expecting to be back here giving testimony of God’s Grace coming through and lifting me up out of this pit again very soon.

For now… listen to the song on my music player called… “Love her like Jesus”

Love,

Pam

YOUR Gonna Miss this … Moment #3

Week 3!  Hoping to get more players this week!!  Join in!  Post YOUR “moment” on your blog and link it back to this site so we can all visit your blog and read your “moment”.  Or, if you don’t have a blog, leave your “moment” in the comments.

Click on the picture for more information.  And don't forget to use the picture on your post!

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

I have a few “moments” to share this week.

First, when I took Kiahna to preschool one day this week.  I had her lunch bag packed and in her back pack.  She wanted to take it out and hold it.  I told the teachers, “I will just take it with me, because it is for after preschool.  We are going over to the elementary school to eat lunch with Lucas."

Both teachers, almost in unison, said, “Oh, I miss that!”

I didn’t have my camera to take a picture of us eating with Lucas, but I treasured the moment just a little more, knowing that these days, with this one, are fleeting.

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

My second moment…

Seventeen vs. Fourteen…

Football in the kitchen…

James refused to let Zach through the opening…

I don’t know how long it went on…

I got tired and went to bed…

James will be in trouble when he no longer has the weight advantage.  Zach has muscle.  And James is training him well!

I AM going to miss THIS!  (annoying as it can get after awhile!!)

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

I admit to writing these first two last night.  I was going to post it as is, but I had some things happen today that I have to add. 

As much as I wish it wasn't true, there are so many times that I just can't imagine that I will ever miss the things that happen.  This morning was one of those times.  We were home all day, so (even though it isn't Tuesday!) I decided to work on the kitchen cupboard doors.

I took off the hinges and the handles.  Took the doors outside.  Sanded and Painted them.

I was growing increasingly irritated with Jadon and Kiahna.  They just wouldn't go play!  They wanted to be right where I was.  They wanted to ride their bikes around the table.  Around the saw horses!  They "couldn't" go to the sandbox or the swing set because there may be a bee!  I assured them that I had sprayed those bees (wasps, actually) a month ago.  I didn't think there were any more. 

They wouldn't. 

They dug a hole in the yard though.

Then Kiahna almost sat on the bench (with a wet door on it!). 

The final straw was when Jadon turned on the hose!  Kiahna got wet, the doors, THANK GOD! didn't. 

I was thinking about this post while I was working and going crazy with their presence!  I know I will regret not enjoying this moment today.  But, I really want to be able to do something without them wrecking it or standing on top of me while I try to do this.  Why can't they just go play?  Why does this bug me like this?  Why can't I enjoy this? 

I ended up yelling at Jadon for the water incident.  Sending him to his room.  Deciding I was done painting for now.

And then they went off to play...

Is that some law of nature?  Do what mom wants AFTER she gives up on what she wanted to do??  (yes, Kiahna has her shirt off)

Go ahead, tell us the moments that you have a hard time believing you will miss...

Pam

 

Nehemiah and Me

If you are like me, you haven’t spent too much time with your Bible open to the book of Nehemiah.  Until the past couple years, I think I may have only been in that chapter once.  Did you know that Jadon’s name is in the book of Nehemiah?

“Next to them, repairs were made by men from Gibeon and Mizpah—Melatiah of Gibeon and Jadon of Meronoth—”  Nehemiah 3:7

Did you know that after the Children of Israel were carried off to captivity in Babylon.  Remember Daniel?  God called Nehemiah to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city.

Jerusalem was a mess.  In Nehemiah 4 we learn some of the shape the city was in..

When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?"

Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"  Neh. 4:1-3

I am not sure when this story was brought to my attention and became a parallel to my life.  I know I am not clever enough to come up with these things on my own.  See that part about the stones being burned?  “Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”

That has been my thought over and over.  Just last week again, I was struggling with the thoughts that this is too big of a mess to be fixed.

“to bestow on them a crown of beauty  instead of ashes,”  Isaiah 61:3

I know that God is using this charred, burned, heaps of rubble & ash, and is bringing life back into it.  Slowly. 

“So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.”  Nehemiah 4:6

Sometimes I feel like this.  I work with all my heart… get about 1/2 way through what I know I am supposed to be doing and lose heart.  Getting frustrated at how long it is taking.  How much work it all is.  How things aren’t going the way I wanted them to.

“Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, ‘The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.’" Neh. 4:10

How often it just looks like too much.  My strength gives out.  I can’t keep going takes over my mind.

“Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."  Neh. 4:13,14

And people come to stand with me and fight.  At the “exposed places”, “with their swords, spears and bows.”  And I am not alone.

“Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

And so I post these words around my house.  I remember to fight.  I remember that I am not alone.  I am fighting for my home.  My sons.  My daughters. 

“So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.”  Neh. 4:21

And we continue to go on fighting.  Standing together.  Using burnt stones to rebuild a family that was completely destroyed by an unseen enemy. 

But, what of the father of this home?  Is there no hope left for him?  Is he part of this rebuilding process?  God alone holds that secret mystery.  My prayers still gravitate towards the hope that the rebuilding will include him.   The opposition is very heavy against it.  The area that includes him is burned beyond recognition.  Three years to us is much different than three years to God…

I find it quite interesting that Jadon was one of those wall builders.  Makes you wonder.

Pam

Blog-keeping... and a contest!

You know, like house-keeping… although I confess, I tend to my blog better than my house many days!

I saw a cartoon on someone’s blog last week…

‘If my house is clean, my computer must be broken". 

Oh how truthful!

A few things that I have been working on with my blog that I wanted to tell you about.

First, I added music to the side-bar this morning.  I have debated about that for a long time.  Sometimes, music can distract from the message.  I just wanted to tell you that if you don't like the music you can click on "stop".  You can also move it to a different song.

Does anyone know anything about those music players?  At the moment it isn't even wanting to upload on the blog.  It was working earlier.  Does anyone know if you can add your own music to any of the programs?  Some of the songs I would like to have on there I can't find in their library of music.

I also created "You're Gonna Miss This" photos with each of my kids pictures.  Does anyone know how to create a slide show on the sidebar with these?  None of the programs I have used in the past work the way I want them to.  I want the pictures to automatically play, quietly, and just randomly change.  Any ideas??

Blogger has added a new feature for keeping track of the blogs that you regularly read.  It is called "followers".  I love how one mom handled this, she said, follow me, while I follow HIM.  I agree.  If you are interested in following me, follow Him, click that on the side bar too to sign up.

I've had some people have trouble leaving me comments.  I have now allowed "anonymous" comments on my blog.  You don't need to have a user name or password to leave a comment.  You can sign your name to the comment and I will know who left it!  I hope that helps.

I heart commenter's!  Thinking that another contest is in order for commenters! 

Last week?  The week before?  I was listening to the radio station Star 88.3, where they play "the family name game" a few times a day.  The name they were asking for was anyone with a son or daughter named "Zach"!  I called, and got in! Got on the radio, with a 30 second or so blurb telling them about my son Zach! 

As a prize I got a free CD.  I told them to send me any CD, thinking I have very few CD's.  Well.... I got one that I already own!  What are the odds!  But, it is a very good one!  I've been wanting to give it to someone.  So I am going to give away this CD to the first NEW COMMENTER on this post!!  If you have never commented on my blog before, and you have been a regular reader I want to hear from you and I want to send you this CD!! 

Oh, I didn't tell you which CD it is did I!

Point of Grace, How You Live

You can listen to the title song, or maybe you already are, in my new music!   The song I copied the lyrics to, on the post before this one, is on this cd too.  Fearless Heart.  The Fearless Heart song is one I really want to get on there.  I just don't know how!  Frustrating!

Okay, I think that is all I have for now!  I know my blog is busy with "stuff" on the sides.  One day I may have to get professional help for all my blog clutter!  Oh my!!

Okay, back to the house-cleaning...

Pam

Deer

Peace has settled around my heart, like a blanket, tucked in tight, on a cool morning.

Sweet.  Unexplainable.  Undeniable.  Unattainable.  Passes all Understanding.  You shouldn’t really be here under these circumstances, and yet here you are.  Peace.

This morning as my alarm went off I heard the words, “I will worship YOU”.  And then I hit snooze.  I laid there in that 3/4 sleep state, and was amazed. 

When the radio came back on 9 minutes later and woke me again.  I had a splitting head-ache, and just wanted to roll back over and sleep.  I let the radio play.  Point of Grace, song Fearless Heart was playing.

For even the most trusting soul
This world can be a scary place
So much that we can't control
In every moment that we face
When a thousand what ifs
Whisper in our ears
We remember who's we are
And watch them disappear

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road may seem dark
I wanna live, wanna live with a fearless heart

There are worries chasing everyone
It's evident in times like these
But I have found the confidence that comes
From time I spend on my knees
There's a truth I'm holding onto
As these days unfold
Greater is He, God is in you
And hear it in the world

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road may seem dark
I wanna live, wanna live with a fearless heart
He's my strength, He's my shelter
He is with me all the way
He's my light and my salvation
Of whom shall I be afraid, of whom shall I be afraid?

I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road may seem dark, yeah
I wanna live with a fearless heart
Courage that's coming from trust in God
It's constantly guiding me though the road is dark
I wanna live, wanna live with a fearless heart
With a fearless heart, with a fearless heart
With a fearless heart

And so the day began.  A day wrapped in peace.  Peace,  Even though things have not happened the way I wanted them to.  Peace, even though I found out more information yesterday about HSSH’s poor choices.  Peace, even though this is the anniversary time of year.  Peace.

I testify to the power of prayer.

I testify to the strength of God made perfect in absolute weakness.

I testify to being able to do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me strength.

Last night, I drove to the corner, to paved roads, to walk with my friend Lora.  I saw deer in two different fields.  Then I saw another one at the corner, on the road.

Then this morning, after Jadon and I dropped Lucas off at the bus stop, we drove in the lane and saw this in our back yard.

I have only witnessed deer that close to our house a handful of times.  Normally, it is in the morning when I first wake up.  They run just hearing the sound of me running water in the house.

This deer stayed right where it was.  Looking at us, through driving into the garage.  Getting out of the van.  Shushing Jadon multiple times, getting my camera, with the windows open, opening the sliding door, walking outside.  Taking a few pictures…

Jadon waving and saying… “HI DEER”… none too quiet…

It mozied it’s way back into the woods…

“He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.”  Psalm 18:33

Pam