A Christmas Card for You

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Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Here is our playlist, which we are about to hear while we bake some pies.

http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Thanksgiving/79194359


Have a peaceful Thanksgiving.

Grateful for the 23rd day: Sharing

Our past week was full of sharing with lots of lovely folks.  Every Tuesday we go to Joy Club at Hall Church.  The school bus drops off kids from the area after school, and they stay for a Bible Club.  "From the area" means something like this:

Follow enough tire tracks, and you find beautiful children like this: 

Every Wednesday we attend AWANA club at Gandy Church.  This past week at the last minute, we started getting phone calls:  the commander is sick, can you fill in?  The game leader won't be there, can you fill in?  In addition to playing piano, leading a handbook group, and teaching Bible time?  Some of our boys' friends stopped in for awhile to play and shoot guns in the afternoon.  After sharing a quick bowl of chili, we threw a bunch of pool noodles and arm floaties in the van and left.  Of course, God worked it out that everything in the evening went smoothly.  Only one 2nd grader asked, "What is the purpose of hitting floaties with pool noodles?"   

On Friday Jason asked a co-worker over for the afternoon and a meal.   Other than their dad, this is the 1st time I've been able to say to my kids about a firefighter/medic, "I hope you grow up to be like him."  Hopefully we can share more days with him.     

All weekend we got to do chores for our friends who were gone.  This included learning to milk a cow.  Are we ready for our own yet?   Not quite, but we really had fun sharing the work.  

Our week has been filled with these and many more blessings.  For school we are looking for the word "thanks" and derivitives in the Bible.  We read Cranberry Thanksgiving,by Wende and Harry Devlin.

Here are 2 stanzas of a poem I like, called "November," by J. Patrick Lewis:

The bottoms of autumn
Wear diamonds of frost;
The tops of the trees rue 
The leaves that they've lost.

Red squirrels, busy packing
Oak cupboards for weeks,
Still rattle the branches
With seeds in their cheeks.

And our scripture:

Matthew 6:26-34

New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 

Being Grateful for the 15th Day

Today we are thankful for the peace of Christ.  Here are the kids' thoughts about peace:

No wars between any countries

Lying down to sleep

A nice quiet day

Colossians 3:15-17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.


This week we made acrostics.  http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/pdfs/thanks_acrostic_with_graphic.pdf

We have been reading from this book:  

And we're compiling our Thanksgiving playlist on Grooveshark.com. We may share it when we're done in a couple of weeks!

Being Grateful for the 8th day

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, 

and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.

Psalm 95:2

I am thankful to be allowed invited right into God's presence.  I want to enter into His gates with thanksgiving every time I come.

BRINSLIE, TESSA, APRIL, JORGIA

I got to enter in with these lovely girls and about 60 other people last week at True Beauty 2012 retreat.   Worshiping and learning together was an amazing privilege.

At home we've been reading a Thanksgiving story book every day and singing our favorite Thanksgiving songs.

What joyful noises and psalms do you like to sing at Thanksgiving time?

Our 30 Days of Thanksgiving starts today

Today we're starting our thankful countdown.

First, we got out the box of Thanksgiving decorations:  mostly handmade turkeys, but also a few of Grandma Bennett's wax turkeys and pilgrims, 1 plastic Squanto, and our favorite audio card from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

This year we'll use a "prayer guide" from Life Action Ministries.  We will try to have a thankful prayer time and do something fun every day!  

So today we are thankful for our salvation. 

2 Thessalonians 2:13

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹³ But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits^[a] to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Some manuscripts chose you from the beginning

and,

Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.
Should my tears forever flow, could my zeal no respite show,
These for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Thank You.

For 2012 I decided to write a monthly post

In July I tried to upload a video of our dog and a snake attacking each other in the bush.  It would load to 90% then quit.

In August I tried to upload a video of our dog and a snake attacking each other in the bush.  It would load to 90% then quit.

Today, September, I tried to upload a video of our dog and a snake attacking each other in the bush.  It would load to 90% then quit.

Enough with perseverance, already!

Here are some satirical thoughts about our small county courthouse.  We are new here, and part of cultural adaptation includes the "oh how cute" stage.  Our courthouse is quite cute and the library is adorable.  Bored-looking employees stop visiting to glance cutely up at us over their desks.  The sheriff reminds you of Barney Fife.

But part of adaptation also includes the "oh how dumb" stage.

We went to the courthouse to ask about our property.  Sorry, the property person "wasn't in that day."

We went in to pay for our vehicle licenses.   We were told, "We're sorry.  The computers are down and we can't process your payment."

We needed to renew our driver's licenses.  Sorry, the driver's licence examiner is only here from 10:06 to 11:19  once every third month on an odd Wednesday (or something like that.)

The county library is housed in the courthouse.  It is only open a handful of hours per week, seemingly not ever when we are in town.  If a book is overdue, there is no drop box available after 5 or on weekends.  So you get to pay fines until it opens again. The library books are not shelved in any particular order, and there haven't been any new books added for decades.   Also, the card catalogue (!) only lists a few of the shelved books.  Many books are moldy or missing pages.  This library is funded by county tax dollars...no one is sure exactly where those dollars are.

We wanted to learn about 4-H.  So we walked down to the suite of 3 county extension rooms, but found that no extension agent works in this county.  The rooms sit empty.

A county employee has cursed  in conversation with me twice and glared at my children innumerable times.  For being on the property.

I went home and said in frustration, "What is the point of this courthouse!  They don't do ANYTHING!"

Jason smirked.  "They collect taxes."

The next part of cultural adaptation is .... adaptation.

A Story from Daughter Dear

Sandhills Easter Pageant

Mary and Joseph

Children who followed Jesus

The disciples and Jesus

   This Psalm 22 monologue was the best part of the whole pageant.

Roman cowboys; I mean soldiers.












He is alive!

About the beauty of a woman: an assigned essay

What have I learned in life about the beauty of a woman?

I have learned that woman is made in the image of God.  There is something distinct about women that reflects God’s image.  Woman is not less valuable or capable in God’s eyes when she yields to her husband’s leadership.  Rather, her role as a nurturer and pillar of support makes a complete example of the way God made all creation to work. 

Personal Story:  I did not want to identify with women because it seemed like they weren't treated well. Nor did I like the flirty shallow ways my girlfriends used to manipulate. I didn't feel that I was pretty.  Boys didn't like me.  They wanted my friendship to help them get close to the pretty girls.  So I tried to make myself boyish or look like a slob.  In college a Bible study helped me learn to embrace who God made me to be.  I also took notice of hair styles and clothing colors that fit my shape and skin.  I still have to tell myself often, "I am who The Great I AM says I am."   I have learned to embrace being a woman because that’s who God made me to be.  He has created me for good works that He ordained, and they do not include using my influence for wrong or for power.   I want to have my identity firmly rooted in the new creation I am as a woman in Christ, so that He can make something beautiful from my life.   

• I have learned that while some faces and bodies seem beautiful, their beauty can be negated by an ugly heart.
• A woman sometimes loses all her beauty the moment she opens her mouth.  
• Beauty gets uglier and uglier the more it's commercialized. 
• A woman's beauty can also be ruined through misuse or abuse.  
• And even plain faces are radiant when they are taught by lovely heart.  

There are a few beautiful women that I admire.  Their attitudes stay young as their bodies age.  Their lips and hands are full of serving others.  Their hearts are compassionate and teachable.  They talk to and about their husbands with respect.  They are genuine, without hypocrisy.  They are hard-working, but not hardened. 

Rebecca Werner: nickname given by husband: “the Beck.” age 45.  Married 25 years.  7 kids, 2 still births.  Hardest working farm wife I know.  Gorgeous without trying to be.  Desperately wanted to go to the mission field, but her husband didn’t agree.  She yielded; they stayed on the farm; and God has brought dozens of hired men through their home from a dozen different countries.  He brought the mission field to them, and their home is a ministry.  She even cares for her father-in-law in their home.  She has much to teach, yet she is teachable and so giving.  She matures, but does not seem to age.  Becky exudes a quiet, strong beauty that doesn’t knock you over when you meet her.  You can just feel that there is something very special about this woman.  I want to be her in 10 years.                                                                                    

 Becky is on the far left.

• simple glamour
• serves her husband and family whole-heartedly, with great respect
• generous
• youthful and hard working
• intelligent, articulate, funny and fun-loving
• hospitality
• cares for the lost

Ellen Paulton

 age: 80s.  Married:  60 years.  4 or 5 adult kids plus grands and great-grands.  Bright shining blue eyes, wavy white hair, ready smile.  Hair and makeup is always done.  She stays fit and eats healthy.  She is the hardest working ranch wife I know, and that is saying an awful lot.  Her husband is going downhill with his memory and other health problems, adding to her responsibilities.  As a family, they are highly respected in the community for their service and years of integrity.  Their home is always open for hospitality—the food, the bedrooms, the pastures, the gardens.  Their children have grown to high places of leadership and ministry around the U.S.  She knows the Bible in and out and loves to learn from it.  She grows in wisdom, yet does not seem to age.   Ellen has a gentle way of offering guidance to young women, in Titus 2 fashion.  She has a wealth of knowledge and skills, and she’s willing to take time to share them.  I want to be her in 25 years.

                         Ellen is in the middle of the photo.

• well-groomed ranch wife
• quietly cooks and gardens
• hospitality, generosity
• tough, inner endurance
• vast abilities
• apt to teach
• intelligent and articulate

Mary Parker

• gracious
• giving
• makes you feel loved
• open home and heart
• nurturing
• realistic about her limitations
• able to explain things really well

Betty Jo Mathis

• humorous writer
• rural pastor's wife
• large, diverse family
• shares the gospel constantly
• always gives you a tidbit to think about
• never retires

Mary Lou Miller

• cut to the chase
• lovely in body and manner
• cares deeply about the lost

Mandy Caley

• faces the truth and doesn't hide it
• heart for the lost
• articulate in several cultures
• treats everyone without condescension

Denny Johnson

• radiant
• exudes joy; spreads cheer
• gives and gives

Barb Sayer and Sheri Coleman

• look you in the eyes and expect you to step up
• strong and accomplished
• stand by their men
• able to ingratiate themselves
• direct, without being biting

Anneke Labutes and Joe Charles (not a woman, but influenced me)

• 100% Grace
• 100% Truth
• never grow old
• warm and loving
• humorous; dancing eyes
• loved music

"Mama, Everything is New"

Well, isn't it? Doesn't spring just keep coming year after year and we're astonished every time? The little ones and I are exclaiming on every corner of the property about the bloomingness of it all.

February went out and March came in with lightning, wind, hail and tornadoes. And cloud shows.


June, is that you? March got so warm, for so many days, that we couldn't be sure..

Here are the 7 new chicks. Naming debates have begun. "Name them all Dave," says one. "How about Nick, Sally and Shelly?" says another. "Mom, which one is yours?" For one thing, they're all supposedly pullets; for another, I just can't get Sally Mae, Slim, Loper, Hank, Drover and Pete out of my head. We've been on a Hank the Cowdog kick. And another thing--five of them look identical. How about we name them all "Egg?" By the way, this is the two-room cardboard house the kids made them in art class. The house got named "The Cozy Cone." All that loving care, and the chicks outgrew it in a week anyhow. But that's part of the miracle of spring.


Here are some new-to-us little gals that moved in recently. Looking out over the treeless plain above my morning coffee, I shake my head and think, "Am I seeing things?" Picturesque as they are, I vote we don't name them this time. K?


And it wouldn't be spring in kid land without PROGRAMS. I also have to shake the cobwebs off my eyes at this little church family. Am I seeing things? So much out here hasn't changed since the one-room school house days.

So go get a little dirt under your fingernails, already!

Top Ten Themes of 2011

1. HURRY UP AND WAIT

wait for tests, wait for news, wait for direction, wait for peace,

wait for rain, wait for friends

2. WORK PROMOTION

3. NEW COMMUNITY

peewee sports, 4-H, book club, babysitters, little grocery store,

summer reading, visit churches

4. OLD CHURCH/NEW CHURCH SEARCH

2011 Top Ten Part 2

5. NEW CHILDREN'S MINISTRIES

6. INTERCESSION

for a miracle baby and a brain tumor patient

7. HURRY UP AND WAIT

wait for spring, wait on the garden, wait for chickens, wait for a church,

wait for the fence, wait for buffs, wait and pray, pray and wait

Top Ten 2011 Part 3

8. WEDDINGS

9. REUNIONS WITH THE BEST FAMILIES IN THE WORLD

10. THE BISON LEARNING CURVE

New Year's Eve 2011

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