Xander's Nap

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"Let's read Peter Rabbit."....."It's a good story, isn't it, Xander?......OK, time to rest. Do you need a blanket?"......"Yeah. Let's share a blanket!"....."Okay. Aunt Jessie made this one."........."It's a nice blanket."....."Yes, it is. Let's get covered up."......."D'Amah, keep your eyes open."......"But I need to rest, and so do you."......"But why?"....."Your daddy said so."......"Why?"......"Because he knows you're tired."......."Why?".......snuggle, snuggle......"D'Amah, I like you."......"I like you, too, Xander."

~

Happiness!

~

The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.

Proverbs 10:22

There is a lot of happiness around here right now!  Here are the pictures to show it.  They were taken in Olympia at the park, the harbor and the fountain.  Not much commentary is needed, ya think?

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And.....the ring!

~ 

Good Gifts Only

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"Dear Lord, for all the gifts that we never see clearly or understand much or appreciate hardly at all, bless You."  Brian Doyle

Thank You for that.  Another reminder of good gifts.  Everything from Your hand is intended for my benefit.  Nothing is a bad gift.  Nothing.  So please help me to always say "Thank You" -- for everything -- no matter what it looks like, because You only give good gifts and You are incapable of making a mistake with my life.

Peace.  Awesome.

~

Oh, Summer! Where Art Thou?

 ~
The summer of 2010 will be remembered by me in two ways.  As the summer that wasn't.  And as the hardest time I have ever gone through.

For me, summer is a recharging time that readies me for the coming grey and wet months of the northwest.  This summer we had very few warm days, it rained through June, the garden never really happened because of my focus being on my dad while he was here, and what was planted never really grew.  We had one "sheet only" night all summer, and that only for about 4 hours before the blanket was back over me.  I had hopes of a warm fall, but it's not looking that way right now.

My dad being here for 6 weeks was a growing time for me.  And very hard.  The hardest thing I have ever done.  Suffice it to say, God knows.  Period.

So, here are some highlights of the blessings God gave in the midst of the Summer of 2010:

  


The cake I was privileged to make for Dale's nephew's wedding which was on the day of my last post.  :-)  Jessie saved it for me by decorating with all the beautiful flowers!

A wonderful day-trip to the beach with some of my favorite people.  I needed the day away.  It was awesome.

Another beautiful wedding for another of Dale's nephews.  It was an absolutely stunning day in Portland.  I had so much fun photographing the day.

It was held in Cathedral Park under the St. John's Bridge.  Amazing, isn't it?

A BUNCH OF FUN CONCERTS!

At the Strawberry Festival

 At the Cascade Country Cook-Off.

Amazing Day!!!

At the Fair.....

Still at the Fair

At the Garlic Fest......

.....And I caught Dale laughing.

He had recently learned how good the band sounds

and it is written all over his face.  I love it.

Two of my favorite MacInnis men.

And.....Xander's 3rd birthday party,

for which I was delighted to make this cake.

He asked for vanilla and green.  So, then.

So, after three months of silence, there you have an encapsulation of my summer.  Now I'm working on  putting together a blog/website for the beginnings of a candid portraiture business that I hope to launch this fall with an ad for school pictures for the families in our homeschooling community.  We'll see where that road takes us.

~

God's Blessings Today

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Today my family went to the wedding of Dale's nephew up in Shoreline.  It has been a greatly anticipated event for us all.  Two weeks ago, my dad came to live with us and as this past week went by, I knew the likelihood of my going to the wedding was not good.  Hard has it was not to go, I know it was the right thing to do.  Because of that, I have been watching for God's blessing in this day.  Here it is:

I haven't been able to work in the garden for about a year because of my back.  Over the past 4 weeks, it has been getting better, maybe because of some diet changes, and today I felt I might be able to do a little out there.  Beans are in (second time, the first batch rotted in the ground) and the squash and cukes are planted.  I bought plants this year.  I NEVER thought I'd do that.  Shows what I know!  If I want squash and cukes this year, they needed to get a running start because the rain lasted so long this spring.

So, time in the garden, time with my dad.....a very good day.  Thank You, Jesus.
~

God Knows What He's About

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I love this...  From a high school friend of mine who is praying for us in this time:

When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man-
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He's about.
~

I Will Lift My Eyes........

~

 

A friend sent me this song lately, I Will Lift My Eyes, by Bebo Norman.  It has been running through my head a lot.  It's right where I'm living these days.
~

Mother's Day Tea

~

My daughters treated me to a lovely tea at our dear friend Cathi's house.

The day was stunning and the company delightful!

The table was beautiful.

The food was amazing!

Flowering tea.....

and cucumber sandwiches, quiche and muffins.....

and a stunning fresh berry pie!

My treasured daughters and daughter-in-law, and dear friend Cathi.

Jessie painted really cool name cards.  :-)

And we were blessed to have sweet children....

to delight us.

And to top it off, the mountain showed her face in the front yard,

and dogwood was blooming.....one of my favorite parts of spring.

Thanks Jessie, Maggie and Cathi!
Dana, we missed you!!
~

Mother's Day

~
For 28 years now, I've been a mom.  And for 2 1/2 a grandma.  This year on Mother's Day, I had the joy of catching the delight of my grandson on our trampoline. Such fun.

 

Playing with "Chief"

 Bouncing.........

 Flying.........

Loving every minute......

 An Electrifying Experience!

 Roaring!

 Playing Mario Kart.......something we now wish

we had allowed his daddy to do when he was young.

"I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children

(and grandchildren) walking in the truth." 3 John 1:4

Shannon

~
I'm sitting here listening to Amy Grant sing "Better Than a Hallelujah" and remembering Shannon. 

"God loves a lullaby - in a mother's tears in the dead of night - better than a hallelujah, sometimes......We pour out our miseries, God just hears a melody.  Beautiful the mess we are; the honest cries of breaking hearts are better than a hallelujah." 

Thirteen years ago today I gave birth to a tiny little girl and we named her Shannon.  In some of my writings, I found this reflection, and though the years have passed, so much remains the same......


"It has been just a year since our sweet little daughter, Shannon, was born.

I think most of us have become accustomed to seeing the tiny feet pin that many people wear as a testimony to the fact that life in the womb is real and precious.  These little feet, however, are not the same as those on the pin.  They are the actual footprints of our little Shannon.  We are blessed to have this keepsake of her short life.  She was about 12 weeks old (gestationally) and so small that she fit in the palm of my hand, and yet she was perfectly formed in every observable way.  For some unknown (to us) reason, the Lord saw that it was best for her to be with Him instead of us, and so we released her to Him and carry her memory with us.

In the midst of a time when parts of our government condone abortion, and one of the greatest battles of all time is raging in our nation over the sanctity of life, some of us battle with the loss of life that is beyond our control.  There are many of us who ask why we have to lose the babies we so desperately want, while others throw theirs away so callously.  While the pain is so sharp, and the hurt so deep, there is no answer to that question here on earth.  It is one of the things that the Lord asks us to trust Him with, and we must walk on through the pain, resting in Him every step of the way."

One of the greatest gifts I've ever been given is that of motherhood.  I am so grateful for the lives of my four living children.  Each has been an incredible blessing in my life.  As have the seven souls whose purposes are being played out in God's kingdom, out of my sight but not out of my mind.  I look forward to meeting them again on the other side.

Happy Birthday, Shannon.

Flowers for Shannon.

From Jessie. 

Who always remembers.

Believing vs. Knowing

~
Not too long ago, some dear people observed that I say "I know" a lot.  I don't mean those times when someone is talking and I'm agreeing with them.  This is more in the realm of, "I know thus and such about God." Or, "I know this and that about myself and my family."  Or, "I know there are things going on in the spiritual realm of which I'm unaware." 

After that observation, I have realized how much I do say "I know...."  And it has shown me some things about myself.

Yesterday I read a quotation that stopped me in my tracks.  Okay, I was lying down, so I guess it really didn't stop any forward motion of my person, but it made me think.

"We act out what we believe.  Not what we know."  Vickie Arruda

Belief.  As opposed to knowledge.  I know a lot of things about God.  His Word is full of amazing descriptions of Him.  But do I believe them?  REALLY believe them?  And, more importantly, do my actions flow from that belief?

"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."  Hebrews 11:6

I want to be pleasing to Him.  I want my actions to reveal that I truly believe Him as opposed to just knowing who He is.

So, I'm focusing on believing these 5 things:

1. God is Who He says He is.
2. God can do what He says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.
5. God's Word is alive and active in me.

(Thank you, Beth Moore and your Believing God study.  Amazing. Every time!)

~

"Doing" & "Being"

~
The Lord and I have been working on me learning to "be," ala  Mary of Bethany. (Luke 10:38-42)

"Don't keep trying to figure everything out (about what He wants me to learn), just sit at My feet and BE.

So, I'm trying.  At this point, it's a little easier, because I am having a hard time really doing much of anything physically with my back as it is, but I still wrestle in my mind.  "What can I do to hear from the Lord? What can I do to know Him better? Love Him?  Feel His love?  How can I know what He wants here?" 

It's really rather pointless of me to worry this stuff to death, because the way He has been working in my life is to drop stuff on me when I least expect it, and make clear to me things about Himself, about me, about my situation.  No effort on my part.  At all.

So, I'm working on choosing the good part, of sitting at His feet and listening to His word.  Like Mary did.
~

More Spring

So, on Sunday I spent a lot of the day moving pretty slowly.  The sun was out, though. and I kept thinking about the horse pasture.  After watching the birds and cloud rainbows above me in the sky while lying on the trampoline, I decided to go give it a shot and see if I might capture some of the spring beauty that Boomer had been telling me about.

The first thing I found was a patch of trillium, which never ceases to thrill me.  And both white and purple, to boot!









Then I spotted some wild strawberry plants.  There were quite a few of them creeping through the leaves and greenery.

Then I found this.  We wait every spring for the emergence of these beautiful wild iris.  I wish I could capture the scent and share that, as well.  It is so amazing and says "Spring!" better than any other fragrance of the season.

The salmon berry bushes are blooming now and the color of their blossoms is so unique.  I delight in spotting the bright petals in the denseness of the green undergrowth.

And I really didn't want to miss a good long gaze at the mountain.  To my delight, the neighbors have gotten more cows, and they were grazing right in my way.

Back in our vegetable garden, I found these chives going to flower.  Isn't God amazing?  I love what He does in a garden.

And here is a better shot of that amazing tulip with green in the petals (from last week)..


I am so glad I live in the northwest!