Embassy of the Kingdom of Heaven

Hi friends, miss you all! 

 I came across this as I was doing my devotion on
 YouVersion Bible app  

(Life Church for those of you looking for a great Bible app.)  Email me if you need help finding it, or if you want to be friends on it.  I feel like it is a better way to sharpen each other than some other things that are offered out in the great big world today.  I love it and digging in the Word is so good for us!
*my email is on the sidebar.
 

Need a lift to your sagging spirit? 

 Do you need God to help you move out of stuck and into a new realm of Kingdom business? 

 Well, I might have just the opportunity for you. Click and watch and then bow your head and see what our Father will do!  I was humbled as I watched, but also inspired to ask God to use my life in such a way.

A piece of what God is putting on my heart... Asking Him how we can accomplish this vision He has given me through this

beautiful 82 year old inspiration

 to my soul.

My First Carved Spoons

What does a girl do when she just can't sleep?

 She gets up  at 5 am 

(well actually 3, but my feet hit the floor at 5 am)  

and decides to do a photo shoot of her hand carved spoons.

Pardon any blur, but did I mention I only got 3 hours of sleep?!!

  

How does one go from mother of 8 to a spoon carvin' Mama?  

Well, I have loved old wooden spoons for awhile. I always look about to rescue another from the heap, but this came with a sudden interest in trees that lay by the side of the road and needed rescuing.  

(Do you see a theme in my life?  Haha)  

So girl tells her husband that she wants to carve spoons. 

 He cocks his head and says something like, "Really?" (in his head he was thinking, 'Don't we already own like 50?'  He has such a sense of humor, maybe I have 20). 

So said husband takes it upon himself to make a blank for the wife.  (Meaning he didn't want me to use the ax, as he likes my fingers as they are). Since this time I ventured to Brimfield Antique Show and bought myself I huge carving knife.  My homemade daughter says it is for gutting bears, the old man I bought it from was worried I had evil in my heart and made me promise I would hurt anyone with it.  To which I assured him I planned to only carve wood and never ever draw blood, not even my own if I could help it.

 I watched a few videos on YouTube.  Took the roughed out log which now if you squinted really hard could make out a spoon somewhere behind all that extra wood. And began to remove all the extra (mainly used a chisel, gouge and a homemade wooden mallet my Knight made me, from you guessed it, rescued wood).

Wallah...spoon #1 after 5 plus hours of chiseling and carving.  In the end I sanded her with 3 types of sandpaper in varying coarseness, then made a wood butter to slather on her,

 so she would be 'real purdy.'

I am in love with her.  She may not be perfect, but I took her out of a piece of wood that was chopped down by a tree service (now I never saw them, but I imagined they were sent in to trim up the trees for our safety).  I think she is a red oak.  On the list of woods NOT to begin with, but hey I am not a huge follower of rules. I like to make them as I go ;}

 She landed in our library parking lot during one of the last snowstorms and a tree service came and chopped her up and left her lying there all sad and lonely.  She was happy to see us coming!  My strong son  hoisted her into the tank of mine, that some refer to as a very large car, which is perfect for wood gathering. 

#1

Spoon # two was trouble.  An experienced carver would have thrown her into the fire, but as you have guessed, I stuck it out, knots and all. (note to self, see knots and pick another piece of wood).  She is also some type of hardwood...oak?  I had a hard time reading her grains and kept hacking out pieces that were needed.  So she came out more like a spatula.  But though she is imperfect and perhaps ugly, I love her. 

(see her trying to hide behind my beloved #1?)

Look!  They make a heart when placed together...

okay I might be tired, but doesn't it look like a heart?

 

She really fits nicely into my hand and will make a nice mate to love #1.  Now I am working on spoon #3.  She should also go into the fire, as she has a worm hole and a knot too~ in her handle and bowl.  But I can't bear to quit on her, so I continue to work into hour 3 on her becoming a spoon. I mentioned her negatives to my Knight and he shrugged and said that it would give her character.

Spoon making isn't for the weak or timid.  You have to use knives, axes (yes I went and bought my own and then my man bought me a smaller one...haha), hook knives, chisels, wooden mallets...all sorts of beautiful woodworking tools. All new to me, but becoming a rather large collection.  

Ask me what I got for Mother's Day this year.  Tools!!  My son-in-love came in and was like, "Whoa, aren't you wanting jewelry or something more girly?' 

It also requires hours of time, and an eye to draw it out of hiding. A strong back is good too.  But I think this comes with the hours of time that goes into each new work of art. I have drawn blood, but nothing that needed more than a paper towel clean up.  I actually felt more like a woodworker after the blood incidents.

I feel like an artist as the spoons suddenly manifests from the log. They were hidden in there the whole time, but just needed a gentle coaxing to come out.

  I imagine it is like me as God continues to shape me into His image, never quitting and lovingly shaping, turning, a touch here, a bit more there and then carefully eyeing up rough spots that need to be honed to a smooth glass like finish.  A finish that reflects the Maker and in the case of my spoons, their maker.

They love each other ;-)

I am a spoon carver. 

 I can't wait to try new shapes, new woods, new tools, old tools and all the gadgets that my husband keeps picking up at the auction for me.  I think he loves that I am happy and that some of my pent up artist is coming out, even if it is 'spoons!' in his mind. Afterall, for years it was soap.

Did I mention that I am going to carve kuksa and bowls too someday?  But for now I will hone my spoon- making skills. And let me say, 4 children have had their hand at spoon carving now too.  Seems it may be contagious! I have so much to learn, looking at these pictures makes me think maybe I need to slather on a wee bit more spoon-butter onto my darlings.

I am a woodworker hear me roar!

Natural Hair and Adoption

We joke that she has enough hair for at least two people.  Her older Ethiopian sister has said she herself has enough for maybe three people.  It certainly is a mane of glory.  This mama has gotten good at natural hair care, though she grew up only knowing how to care for her own hair type which certainly was not African in any way shape or form. Braids yes, french braids sure, but cornrows or box braids, um no-sir-ree.

God is full of surprises.  He brings you places that you'd never imagine.  I never imagined I would be the mother of two Ethiopian daughters and that they would have enough hair to make tons and tons of box row braids when one sets about to.  I never realized my fingers would move so quickly at parting with a rat tail comb and finding just the right product to make their hair soft and protected.  Or that a hair style could take a couple of hours to complete, never mind undoing it several weeks later.

Rarely do I keep Princess Mercy's hair down (unbraided). I have learned that it quickly shrinks up and tangles and leads to tears and long careful sessions of trying to coax the hair out of knots and nests. A battleground that this mama knows to avoid.  But sometimes this little one just wants a day of freedom and wants to take the risk of a few hours without it being styled.  It always must go into a protective hairstyle by bedtime, which means twists or lose braids, followed by a silk cap to sleep in.

Curly, kinky, beautiful African hair. I smile because I trusted Him enough to say yes. Yes to two beautiful daughters who are so different from me.  He knows how to make it all happen.  My non-African friends ask me 'Who does their hair?'  I smile and I say 'Just me.'  They tip their head and ask me how I know how to do all these things,  that are foreign to so many light skinned mamas.  I grin and explain that what God calls you to, that He enables you to walk in it.  His call, His leading, His help and my following.  

Life is good. Isn't she cute?

And hey..put your name down for my giveaway!  

Time is running short and you'll be so blessed if you are the one who gets picked.  

I think this little one will love to write names down and put them into a basket and draw out the winner.  

We need more names...so please sign up. 

 I am sure you will enjoy it, or can find someone who would love it.

A Girl's Love

~My Sweet Caravan~

Call me crazy, I miss her already.  It has only been a short time since we were together, but I miss spending time with her.  She has been winterized and pushed to a corner that is not needed for the winter. She looks cold and lonely in her new spot. My heart longs for her and her sweet vintage vibe.

As soon as spring shows any sign of arriving, I will begin to give my husband the eyes. This means, can we please pop-her-up and can we go for a sleep over?  I love sleeping outside.  I love cozying up inside her welcoming arms and reading whatever is the book of the moment.  

She is plumped up with quilts and overstuffed pillows.  Everyone loves sleeping in her or sneaking in a few precious moments to read away a warm day in her company. Some days you can find a cat or two enjoying her beauty.  And most nights you can also find a dog, who thinks we bought it for her, whining at her welcoming mat to be let in for 40 winks. But really she belongs to the Mama, who looked long and hard to find the one she saw in her dreams.  You need an invitation to come through her small threshold, as Mama is particular about sharing her.

Most of my friends don't understand.  They don't love the outdoors or the wind whispering through netted windows.  They don't love the idea of birds waking them up as the sun rises either.  But that is okay, because I am in love with her.  She brings me joy that I can't even begin to capture in black and white words on a page. She is my gypsy caravan and we were made for each other.

Yup, she is a charmer.  I wish it was spring once again. 

I wonder if she misses me too?  

What has your heart?  What brings you simple joy? How will you make it through the coming long winter? 

Teaching Children to Bless Others

Teaching Children to Bless Others

 

 As a mother, my heart is that my children will love others and be a blessing.  I don't think this comes naturally, as we often as humans think of self before others.  However, God wants us to love Him with our whole hearts and to love others, self coming way down the list of priorities.  

From Jesus use of the word blessed in the Sermon on the Mount it was the Greek word makarios, mean happy or blissful.  It is also is understood as a self-contained kind of happiness.

Whatever our age, our life situation, we can choose to not be directed by the external around us, but to live out of the internal happiness we have as a beloved child of God.  When we live our lives applying His truths, we find joy, bliss and happiness!

How do we teach this to our children?

Let's decide to purposefully talk to our children about how Jesus came to show us the way to live.  Jesus told us that He is the way, the truth and the life.  If we ask Jesus into our hearts, then the Holy Spirit resides inside us.  

We don't have to be moved by circumstances in our day to make us blessed (happy), but by reminding ourselves that God has given us the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit goes with each of His children all day- we can live out of that truth! It is so much easier to be a blessing if we get that we are blessed ourselves.

Jesus lived to show us how we should live a life that reaches out and blesses others.  It is something He actively did while He lived here on earth.  We need to actively live to do the same.  How can we do that today?  How do we then take this and begin applying it to our children's hearts?

We can show them first off by doing it ourselves.  You know what they say, more is caught than taught.  We need to be in the Word of God each day, and teaching our children to do the same.  We need to be asking Him for opportunities to live as Jesus did in blessing others.  We need to train our ears to hear His voice and allow our children to tune the ears of their hearts as well.  Practice in this makes perfect! 

Challenge our children to count the ways that we can do this in the hours we have been given today.  As you sit together around the dinner table, or head out somewhere in the car, talk about ways God has opened your eyes to see opportunities to be a blessing to people.

The Holy Spirit will be so excited to join us in this blessing adventure.  And how great it is when we activate our children's hearts to live a life that aligns themselves in following after their Father's heart!

Jesus began and ended His ministry in blessing people.

Three of my Loves

It is May and a level of Thanksgiving rises in my heart this time of the year, that is unparalleled to other non-holiday times of the year. 

 I LOVE MAY! 

 I wake every morning of May, thanking God for every little bit of this beautiful new spring day. 

Honestly, I don't know when my love for May rose up or for my love of lilacs.  I think my mum had her hand in the lilac love.

 I LOVE lilacs!

 As a child, we didn't have them growing in our large yard,
 but would go for drives in May and find abandoned old bushes.
We would pick armfuls to bring home and enjoy.
  My mum must have been on the lookout all year,
come lilac season we would take our adventuring hearts out of their 

cold-winter-New- England slumber

 and would head to her favorite 'lilac liberating' locations.
We would march through field turned forest to find the giant old bushes;
mama and her three littles (me being the oldest). 

Their heavenly smell would greet us as we stepped out into the crisp spring air.  We would park our Volkswagen bus by the forest edge and trek in to gather armfuls of fragrant lilac bunches.  My sweet mum was highly sensitive to the effects of poison ivy and many times would end up covered in it, but still each new May would bring our liberating of lilacs.  Fortunately my siblings and I could roll in poison ivy back then and see not a spot of it upon our wee little bodies.  Times sure do change!

So far I have shared my love of May, my love of lilacs and now I will share the last piece of today's three loves;

 my love for God. 

Here is a prayer I wrote down to my Father this morning in my journal.  He is who I speak to every morning, upon the slightest movement toward awakening.  God is the one who allows me to wake to another day, May or not.  He is the one who has wooed me to His heart and made a place for me in His family. He has given me a heart to love and to enjoy; 

 Oh, that I would live out of that love to bring Him joy!

Oh Lord, 

 

help me,

 

correct me, 

 

 teach me, 

 

show me, 

 

lead me, 

 

fill-me-afresh 

 

and use my life,

 

 that others may be drawn to You.

 

in Jesus' name I ask it.

 

amen

Love Until it Hurts

Once upon a time there was a girl, her name was Kimmie.  She loved Jesus.  She asked God for more of His Holy Spirit.  Everyday she asked for a fresh filling from God.

On February 14th, 2015, He spoke to her while she was serving the homeless and the poor.  It was a day she was overcome by the love she felt for these lives, that she got to rub against once a week.

  She prayed with several of them and felt God moving in her heart.  She cried as she prayed.  The homeless comforted her.  They gave her words of encouragement.  They told her she was making a difference.  They filled her heart.  

She wanted to quit.  She was discouraged. (which means afraid). 

 God says, "Don't be afraid."  

He sent Santiago, Daniel, Michael, Antonio and even Dotty to encourage her this day.  

She passed out 100 valentines.  She said, "Happy Valentine's Day" over 100 times this morning.  Never realizing it was the actual day. Someone else had made them, but was too shy to pass them out.  Somehow God has moved me out of shy, into a whole new world.  The world is so different than what she had ever known before. Somehow in all the stretching God had been doing in her life, she lost track of time.

She had been praying because her heart was so tender.  She wondered if she was too gullible or naive to continue serving Him in this place. She brought it to God in prayer, asking if she should 

 change and harden up a bit.

But He said, "Don't change.  I love your tender heart.  It is so in tune with my Holy Spirit."

He then spoke this to me...

"Love until it hurts, then you have it right." 

And that is what I do.  I jump in with all of my heart.  I feel the pain, not because of brokenness, or rejection, but because I choose to say yes to Loving whoever He puts in my path,

 until it HURTS.

I must have it right, as boy does it hurt! 

I think God is smiling.

Fragments, Pieces and Parts

Does it ever seem like you are needing super-human strength

 to make it through your 'just normal' day?

Life for me is full.  Full meaning busy, full meaning I sometimes don't sit down until I really am ready to collapse.  I often just get so busy that I forget to eat, then suddenly I realize it is dinner time. I never do it intentionally, it just seems that one minute runs into the next and before I know it my Knight is due home and the last leg of the day has come once again.

We had a special guest speaker at church this week.  A week set aside as a "renewal" week (a time of refueling and refreshing) at my church.  As I sat worshiping God, I realized how fragmented my worship must seem to him.  How many times during my singing and worshiping Him, does my mind wander back to the ordinary of my life.  One minute I am raising my hands and singing out my love for Him, the very next I am thinking if I took the meat out of the freezer for tomorrow's dinner.  

I jotted this down in my notes as the sermon was being preached:

'I am offering God the bits of my day, the pockets that spill into an open moment that becomes worship to God.  Sometimes I can't stay within the worship. (I become unfocused and wander from worship back into worry, planning or plain distraction).  Forgive me Lord, you deserve it all, not fragments or broken bits.  Help me to stay centered, focused, intentional.  Help me to give you a whole life of worship."

I catch myself and try to stay centered on just Him.  But again and again I find that my flesh rises up against my spirit, trying to draw me away, back into the world of  'to-do', that never-ever-ends.  

I found my eyes full of tears, big heavy tears, in wanting God to know that it bothered me.  Not a little, but  A LOT!  I found myself at service's end standing in a prayer line with maybe 75 others who felt like me, that they somehow were only giving God a small portion of what they really wanted to give Him.  

As the preacher from South Africa closed up his sermon, he caught my eyes that were welling with tears.  He came down off the altar and put his hands on my head.  He asked the Lord to give me more glory.  To fill me back up and to continue to show His glory through my life.

His prayer wasn't long, but as I chewed on it today I realize that God is using my life and all the ordinary moments to bring glory to Himself.  I don't see it.  Maybe random glimpses, but He does.  Those around me do too.  But sometimes this Mama is just to full to stop and look at what it is that I am daily doing for His glory.  

 He doesn't see my day as meager offerings, or fragmented worship,

 He sees it as a love offering given fully to Him.

He doesn't see my busy as self absorbed, but as a woman who has a servant's heart and serves others in the choice of how she lives and how she serves her family. He doesn't see anything about my day as fragmented or broken.  He sees it as whole and a beautiful fragrant offering.

He has heard my continually cry for more of Him and less of me.  He has seen me begin my day in his Word, often in tears. He has heard me pray for those He puts on my heart and into my life.  He knows that the time is in continual sacrifice to Him, though I don't always understand it as that.

Thank you Lord for your reminding me that the work you have called me to is important, that child raising (in training them to love Him and serve Him) is huge in Kingdom business.  That I am not only influencing those in my home, under my hand, but those who stand around us through the week that are watching God be glorified.  As they look on, they see Him glorified,
 clearer that I see where I am standing.

(that is what He is telling me).

Busy is, as busy does.  
True, true.  

So don't mind my sigh.  But I am full.
 I am being emptied rather deeply each day,
 but He is filling me up to pour me out like a drink offering,
 before His throne and for His glory!

WELCOME HOME!!!!!

Four years ago my oldest fell in love with a fine young man, who happened to go to our church and just so happened to be leaving for boot camp.  Our lives became a sudden whirlwind of events, as so often happens with the suddenlies of God.

After a year of long distance courtship, they picked a wedding date.  It was all fast and furious, due to the fact that our fine young man was about to deploy to Qatar. 

A beautiful homemade wedding happened in the beautiful girl's Grandparents garden. The very blessed parents got to keep their first born-homemade daughter for 6 months, whilst her beloved was off serving our country under blistering heat.  

Then...

we took her to the airport and kissed her so-long!

Many tears came, as the troop of us said our so-longs.

We had never been separated for longer than a mission trip or an adoption pick-up...

so this was going to be stepping into new territory for all of us.

Would they come back??  Would they reenlist?  Would we get to grow along side of each other serving God, as the vision her parents had been given so long ago?

Well...

we don't know all the details yet, but we do know that today

TODAY

they will drive up our long gravel driveway and begin to unpack their lives into ours.  We will welcome them back with glee...our homemade and our son-given!  We have moved and rearranged, so they could find a haven beneath our shingles, while they job hunt and prepare for the coming new adventures that God has awaiting for them.

Am I excited?  With tears in my eyes this Mama says, "Oh, yes!!"

Finishing the last minute details of house arranging and then waiting for the gravel to sound the arrival, as they drive the U-haul and tandem vehicles up the long drive and into our arms.

God is so faithful...thank you for sharing my JOY!!

Honoring Our Airman~ Air Force Tribute!

photo credit Jeff Crandall Photography

A Tribute to my Son-in-Love~ JoJo

Today is your 25th birthday and we want to honor you with a post in tribute not only to this milestone birthday, but to your service to our country.  Thank you for saying 'yes' to God, and signing up to protect and serve us (all) in such trying times. 

 We are so proud of you.  

Though you are my son through marriage to my daughter, we love you as if you were always ours.  I think you were our fastest adoption and you slipped right in with such grace among such an unruly tribe as ours. ;-)

Today you are so many miles away, packing up and heading back to the next adventure God has you and our oldest Princess.  Wish we could help you pack up that truck, or help with the driving all your belongings back to home base.  We are excited to chart your adventure with all of the kids, we have a map and a dry marker ready to follow your course!

JoJo,  thank you for serving us these last four years.  This was our first experience with a family member in the service.  Thank you for keeping us so close to you, through the many miles that kept us apart.  You have blessed not only your new Father and Mother-in-Loves, but all the rest of the smaller tribe members as well.  So many big and little faces here adore you, each and everyone can't wait for you to pull up the gravel driveway and cross our threshold.   We can't wait to hug you, to squeeze you tight and to engage the next step of your married adventure with you at close range (temporarily under our eaves). Yeah and you are bringing back our babe with you too!!

This morning I asked God if He would give you a prophetic word (a love note from the Father!)

My son JoJo,

I am glad you said 'Yes' to my call to this four years of Air Force adventure. 

 It has been a 'training' for you.

I have given you a sensitive-tender spirit.  The ground of your heart is form-able in my hands.  You also have the gift of careful listening and a watchfulness that comes from Me.  As you continue to follow Me, these precepts and quiet understandings will grow.  It is how I made you, but you are still in the process of growing into it.  I will continue to build on this, it is a strength from Me.

 I will show you hidden things, things that others will not be aware of.  You will get insight into spiritual matters (knowing hearts of men/people).  You will have an increased level of discernment and I will show you how to take it and apply it for Kingdom business.  

I have made 'openings' for you~  I go before you.  Some of these openings will seem 'odd' to you.  Pray, and the same knowing that came to you as you embarked onto My path for you into the Air Force, will come.  It is not in the figuring, but in the finding and knowing Me.  

I am pleased with you.  I want you to pursue Me with fantastic, unabounding energy- run after Me!  This run will not leave you road weary, but energized.  It will fill you, drive you and complete you.  The course won't always be easy, but you are made (and up for) the challenge.

 Put your heart in my hand and see my Goodness poured out over your life.

Understanding and Knowledge are my gifts to you-accept them, use them, touch those around you and I do know this will be stretching, however I made you for this purpose.  You will win others to me through relationship-you will speak life to those who don't see the way.  I am The Way-and I will guide you to show them the way.

Son, I love you- follow hard after Me.  It's not about comfort but about coming into my fullness and seeing all I have planned out for you.  The plans are great, the detailing specific~it WILL pour from My heart into yours.

Please son, say 'Yes' again.

Love~

Your Father-in-Heaven

And here are some more for the rest of you to enjoy....

photo credit Jeff Crandall Photography

 

 

all other photos thanks to my daughter Bella!!

 (good sneaky work helping me with this!)

We love you and glad you are ours...

happy 25th birthday and thanks for keeping the Land of the Free just that!

Believing God in Dry Times

Believing God in Dry Times...or when you find yourself in the furnace!

I have found myself in a dry season.
A dry season that came in the midst of a trial.

  It has been a hard long journey this past year, but instead of quitting my faith (which crossed my mind several times during this time), I pressed in to the Word.  Though God seemed so very far away and the Word I read didn't seem to have any life to it, still I devoted myself to sticking to reading the Bible and praying.  Most times the prayer was mingled with tears, which seemed to only go as far as my shirt, but I would remind myself that He holds all of our tears in a jar.  

It was a hard time.  Especially hard, as we had a wayward child.  If you've ever had one you will know that it is draining, exhausting, frustrating and really can suck the life right out of you.  I was greatly saddened, but I pressed in harder.  I prayed and fasted for a long time.  In the natural not much changed, but God works in ways we can't always see.  He is a supernatural God after all!

In the hard time I decided to not go by my feelings, which can be such liars, but to continue to do what I knew was right in the eyes of God.  I read and prayed, even when my heart doubted the point to it.  I went sleepless nights to hold on tighter to our child through prayer.  We didn't see much change, or not in ways we hoped, but He was moving.  He is always moving, always active, always busy, He never sleeps or slumbers.  He doesn't leave us or forsake us, no matter what our silly thoughts might mutter to us at such times.

He began to bring in others to pray and fast with me.  It brought me to tears, as in the trial I found myself so lonely and without much friend support.  It was if He had cleared away to make it just Him and me.  Even when it seemed like it was just me, it really truly wasn't.  He surrounded me by some very strong women, who prayed and fasted for 30 days for our family.  30 days can you imagine?

Why am I writing this today?  Well, because He spoke to my heart today in a way that made me understand that He didn't leave me or forsake me
 (or mine).  

I was gardening, doing some much needed spring cleaning.  We began planting seeds today, with anticipation of a harvest in 59 days (peas).  I had been pondering not attempting another garden, as it is so much work and quite honestly doesn't really reap that much of a harvest on our property.  As I was again pondering if we should use a local space that we discovered last year, that was far more promising,

 the Lord spoke to my heart.

He said, "Why would you want to sow your seed elsewhere? This is what I have given you and here it is where you are to sow.  You have no idea what we have been sowing.  But the harvest I have prepared is not one you are seeing or feeling in your life.  It is coming and you will harvest all you have sewn with Me."  

I thought what have I sewn Lord?  He showed me all of my children.  They are my field.  He has brought them and planted them in my garden.  He has tilled them into my heart through adoption.  He has helped me have the strength to pull the weeds that have popped up, sometime weeds that were totally underground and festering in massive quantity, looking to destroy my beautiful garden.  But He didn't allow it.  He showed us the evil weeds.  He gave us the strength to speak to the weeds and tell them to go.  We began to rip out, as each became apparent to us.  We cried as we ripped at them, as it felt like our very hearts were being ripped from us as well. We got all we could see and then we fell into a heap waiting on God.  

We were spent.  We have been spent.  Spent, but not out of the gardening business.

We have been waiting.  We never stopped tending this garden.  But today I realized that like Adam, I am a gardener.  I need to embrace the gardening as though it was a gift from my Father.  I need to not grumble about the weeds.  Weeds come, we need to keep an eye open to them and a heart prepared to deal with each that tries to emerge its ugly head. Sin is never pleasant, nor rebellion, but God never quits on us. Never.

 I have had a change of heart today and am thanking God for 
 Lighting His Fire again in my heart.

Praising Him.

Sharing is what friends do.

Making the Injera Batter

What to do on another cold and blustery New England winter day?  Jack up the pellet stove so the house is super warm and throw caution to the wind, that's what I say!

This was our Ethiopian daughter's first time helping to mix up the injera batter.  We added in some more teff (Ethiopian flour), to feed our batter and our little Princess Mercy went to town.  She sang her way through over 30 minutes of rubbing her hands over the lumps to be sure the injera would be perfect when we later poured it onto our mitad  (flat pan, which is electric, that we cook injera here in the States.)

 Usually we use a super large restaurant stainless steel bowl to work our dough, but Mama ain't no dummy and figured this would be the easiest way around not having to have a major clean-up job.

deep concentration

But

She was fully enjoying her little Ethiopian self!

Not the typical way to make injera, but I keep finding more and more that we really aren't typical.

Injera is like a sour dough bread/ pancake.  It's texture when cooked is soft and spongy.  It is used to hold all the yummy Ethiopian foods...plate, injera and the pile on all the Ethiopian dishes that you can. No utensils needed, you take small pieces of the injera and scoop up bite size pieces with it. 

 If you haven't eaten Ethiopian you are missing out.  It is delicious.  I only wish I didn't wait so long to discover it.  Find an Ethiopian restaurant in your area and give it a try- your tummy will be so happy you did. We cook it quite often, a pure labor of love, as it takes a whole day or two to prepare all the food items we all want to eat.

I will have to show you what it looks like once it is all cooked up.  Today is just a little show of the prep work.

Oh happy days!  Childhood is so short.

When a Sword Pierces Your Soul

I get a feed from the Desiring God Blog...

today's post touched my mother's heart deeply.  A mother who is battling for the heart of her child. How hard this job of parenting is. Love holds fast, even when things are hard and not what you thought you signed up for. Thankfully God never leaves us or forsakes us.  We are never in the battlefield alone!

 Mary knew both the joy and anguish of loving a child.  Perhaps this post will bless you too, as you pause to celebrate our glorious Jesus and possibly reflect on motherhood and God's calling on your life.

When a Sword Pierces Your Soul

Homeschool Happiness!

Encouragement is the bomb, really it is. 

 A few days back I got a little email telling me that I was nominated for a homeschool blog award.
(scroll way down to see all the neat categories for this years awards!)

  Bust my buttons.

  Someone out there took a few minutes to put my name in for one of the Homeschool Blog Award categories! Now, in the past I have been nominated (probably by this same someone),
 into the Encourager and Homeschool Mom categories.

 I was encouraged by the, "Hey, you were nominated!" email, and I was also curious to see what category this nomination fell into. Can you believe someone put me in for~

Favorite Homeschool Mom Blog 2013!

How humbling, as I really don't feel like such a great homeschool mom. Last year had been a hard year, not only as a homeschooling teacher/mother, but just as a mother in general. This was like someone slipping up beside me, putting an arm around me and saying...
"You are our favorite Homeschooling Mama! We consider you our friend!"

thanks, really- thanks!

If you feel so led, you can vote in any of the categories for any of the wonderful blogging brothers and sisters in Christ that take time out of their busy lives, to share them with us.  The voting will be done on November 18th- at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time. You can vote once a day in any of the categories...so vote and vote again and again and again- until the clock strikes midnight on the 18th.

I always love voting time...it let's you meet people you'd never normally meet and gives you some fresh ideas on what people are interested in these days.  (sometimes I lose touch in the little world I live in).  I love blogs and I love seeing what others are doing in their lives (whether it be homeschooling, homemaking, heart sharing...!) 

Again...thanks for the brightener to my heart.  
I feel blessed, truly blessed!

God's Calling

God calls us to many things. 

 He calls us to follow Him.  

He calls us to intimacy with Him.

 He calls us to various vocations.

He calls us to spread the gospel. 

 He calls some of us to marriage.

  Some to a step further, parenting. 

 Some of us he even calls us to adoption, post the parenting call. 

 He has called me to all of these, and I am finding that in the midst of this, there isn't much time left over.  My days are very full with what He is asking me to live out. My life has become simple.  But sometimes, simplifying becomes a necessity that cannot be denied any longer.  Pieces began to show signs of unraveling.  Work that had been carefully worked, began to show signs that something wasn't quite right.  How thankful I am for the Holy Spirit showing me what needed to be attended to, where I needed to retrace back to earlier work, so as to strengthen it. 

None of this is bad, or particularly difficult, it just means taking order of what happens each day, so as I can stay focused on fulfilling the call on my life.  My heart longs to hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant," someday.

 This has been a season of home.  A season of sticking to the task of training my children in the way they are to go.  I do it most days with joy, joy in knowing that if I do, there is a promise from God that they will continue to walk it out in their lives, post them being taught it at home. Honestly, some of these days my heart is heavy and fighting off loneliness....But My faith believes that God's promises are true.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For every one of God's promises are "Yes" in him; therefore also through him the "Amen" is spoken, to the glory we give to God.

My desire is to share my life and heart with you.  My longing is to encourage you to passionately follow Him.  I hope that even if my postings are more stretched out in between, that you will find words here that help you live out your life with joy and 

greater and greater faith!