Knees to the Earth

Wonderful Savior
My heart belongs to Thee
I will remember always
The blood You shed for me
Wonderful Savior
My heart will know Your worth
So I will embrace You always
As I walk this earth

Be blessed, be loved, be lifted high
Be treasured here, be glorified
I owe my life to You oh Lord
Here I am

Beautiful Jesus
How may I bless Your heart?
Knees to the earth
I bow down to everything You are
Beautiful Jesus
You are my only worth
So I will embrace You always
As I walk this earth

Be blessed, be loved, be lifted high
Be treasured here, be glorified
I owe my life to You oh Lord
Here I am


by Watermark

jumping

today we had company.

today i spent the day with someone i had never met before (accept via facebook through a mutual friend).

today my children spent the day with 4 children they had never met before.

today i gave sewing lessons to a non-sewer who wanted to learn to make bears from her father's shirts (remember i am a fairly new sewer myself).
we removed her sewing machine from it's original box. spent an hour reading the manual, learning how to thread the bobbin, and finally the needle. then we moved on to the real sewing. beginning first by sewing a paper towel with straight lines and turns. and, with no time to waste we quickly moved on to the limbs and body of the bears.

and as we sewed the kids played. noah enjoyed a guy friend to buddy around with, while all 5 of the girls quickly entered each others worlds of american girls, dress up clothes, kitchens, and make-believe play.

i love the way children do that. they are not reserved. they do not hold back, they innocently jump into friendship. they leave fear behind, hope for the best, and jump.

today, i jumped.

i chose to share my world with another child of God.

and as i jumped into friendship, i was BLESSED!
blessed as we sewed, learned, laughed, shared our stories, were inspired, encouraged, understood, and shared our good God.

and today, i have a new friend.

i wonder what i can jump into tomorrow?

what have you jumped into? what could you jump into?

ruffles & rick-rack

a couple of years ago my girls begged us for a pair of overalls (they really wanted to wear them here).
the overalls soon became their go-to item of clothing. of course (because i am cheap), i bought the overalls a size too big, knowing i could take up or let down the straps as they grew. however, the time has come, the straps have been let down as far as they'll go and the overalls are "high-waters."
but i'm not ready to let them go yet!

so i checked out a few blogs, copy-catted some ideas, and have prolonged the life of our beloved overalls.

what do you think? now, if only i could find a way to add ruffles and rick-rack to each of my children so i can keep them a bit longer.

to buy your own posey pins visit the Pleated Poppy.
or visit Joy's Hope for some pretty,messy flowers.

HOT

it's hot here. 90 degrees in april!
it does this every year it goes from freezing cold to HOT!
we never get to ease into the heat (which can get to a miserable high of 113 during the summer).
it's long sleeves and scarves one day, followed by shorts and flip flops the next.
i want spring!
is there a place where they have spring?
i want to go there.
do you live where they have spring?
can i come for a visit?

thankfully my girls don't seem to mind the heat.

the zoo

we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
how about you, you, you.
you can come too, too, too.
we're going to the zoo. friday we went to the zoo with my mom, sister, and her boys. i cannot wait till they are legally adopted so i can share pix with you, and show you just how ADORABLE they are! i love the way her oldest says, "tia denise pick me up," and then he comfortably settles into my embrace, letting his sweet little hands rest on my neck. he is so loving.

i love the way the babies eyes light up. oh, he is a sweet, happy boy!

i know i am just their tia (their "favorite tia" as i have taught them to refer to me), but i know i can say for the entire family that we are all BLESSED that God wrote them into our lives.
He is a good God!
me with my sister toni.

hello! from my slippers

these slippers make me happy (doesn't take much).
i have named them, "ricky righty" and "lucy lefty."
(you might recall that i love ricky and lucy).
besides, it is much funner (it's a word), to look for ricky and lucy than it is to look for your slippers.

what's on your feet?

d.i.y.

Instead of buying Easter baskets, and storing them, we have resorted to making our own Easter bags for the last few years. Here are the bags the kids made this year. i had to share them, i think they're cute.

Breath

What was it like when Jesus took His first Breath after death?

When God breathed new Life into Him?

That moment isn't shared in scripture.
It takes place in the secret...
the beautiful rebirth...
the Father holding His lifeless Son...
the breath...
the LIFE!

No longer separated.

The embrace.

That wonder-full moment, the beauty, intimacy, holiness of that moment.

I wonder what it was like when Jesus took His first Breath?


This is the air I breath
This is the air I breath
Your holy presence living in me
And I, I'm desperate for You
And I, I'm lost without you.

Seperated from God

Some of us don't believe there is a God.
Some of us are our own god.
Some of us believe, but choose to separate ourselves from God. We want no part of Him.
Some of us use to feel God's presence, but now He seems absent.
Some of us know God wants nothing more than to be fully with us.

I have experienced all of these.

Jesus experienced separation from God.

When reading the story of Easter- the passover meal shared between Jesus and the disciples, Judas' betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane, the mocking and beating of Jesus by the soldiers, the crucifixion, I had always grasped before that Jesus was taking on my sin, and the sin of the world (my sin alone is enough to bear). This week as I read I am grasping that Jesus was experiencing the separation from God that sin causes.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The power of those words. Webster says that forsaken means "to renounce or turn away from entirely."

We believe that Jesus is "begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, of One Being with the Father."

I can't even wrap my mind around what it meant for Jesus to be separate from God.

I can only recall my own very long season when pride came between God and I, and He seemed absent.
I was lifeless.

So as I read the story again this Easter I read it with a new perspective. In the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus expresses that He is "overwhelmed with sorrow," (Mark 14:34-36) and asks God to take this cup from him. I see Emmanuel God with us, Jesus, longing to remain near God. And, when Jesus breaths His last breath, and the curtain temple is torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15: 37-39), I see the heart of Father God torn in two, now separated from His Son.

We are created to be children of God, loved by God, to live in His presence, to be fully His, He is to be fully ours.

And His heart breaks from top to bottom when we are not His.

Satan would like to keep us separate from God. He's a liar and a thief. He uses anyone and anything to steal Life from us.

But he does not win. It's Friday, but Sunday is coming!!

jump

What if you jump
Just close your eyes
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise
What if He's more than enough
What if it's Love.

chorus to Nichole Nordemon's song What if

a little of this

i don't knit.

my friends knit.
all of them.
i miss my friends.
but i have some nice scarves.
i prefer wrapping myself up in good conversation and their company,
but they wrap me up in their scarves.
i hoped knitting would be just a phase.
how many scarves does one person need?
i see lots of elderly ladies knitting.
i think i better embrace their knitting and their scarves.

but i won't knit.
i refuse.

but i will do a little embroidery, a little ironing, and sewing, and make these...


i have to confess i was inspired by (and stole the stacking bowls idea from) my sister-in-law lindsey. to purchase some adorable tea towels visit her on-line store The Pleated Poppy.

i am currently taking sewing lessons and making some fun pencil skirts for the girls.
they are pretty easy for this beginning sewer.


what do you like to create?

other souls

If we are not heedful to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God.

One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them. As we intercede God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede. We are to get His view about the people for whom we pray.

by Oswald Chambers

i've been practicing "forming the mind of Christ" about others this week; choosing discernment, and loving others through prayer instead of quick judgment. i'm finding myself to be more in-love with people. i don't want to fight the world, i want to fight for it.

i heart carmel

just a few pix i took while in Carmel. Carmel is a quaint little town along the pacific coast. if you enjoy a stroll along the beach, browsing specialty shops, antique stores, eating good food, and seeing quaint homes, then Carmel is the place to visit.







while in Carmel i had to stop by one of my favorite places LUSH. the LUSH store carries my favorite shampoo, BIG. LUSH carries a large variety of naturally made soaps, scrubs, deodorants, facial masks and such. Where do you love to skip away to?

What product do you splurge on?