Shots you're really not supposed to take…..

OR
What’s in your car?

The other day I took my camera along with me to run errands because it was just that kind of day where I felt the weather was perfect for a few sweet shots of something beautiful……..I didn’t know what.

So this is what I ended up with…..

Me in the car.
And yikes I’m throwing that lipstick away……

Me driving…..
(Don’t look mom!)

The floor of my car…
complete with first aid kit and Spanish notebooks

Another shot of the floor….
pocketbook, a wrapper from the million wintergreen Lifesavers I’ve eaten lately, gas receipt and a flower from my daughter.

The passenger seat…
the book I’m reading and my cell phone…..a Verizon Dare, which I love

A reminder of my one millionth dentist appointment since deciding on a dental implant……

And the dash of my Nissan Quest that I had to own and we just paid off.  And a reminder of my daughter’s broken arm and the pin the orthopedic surgeon had to put in it.  That’s the hospital bracelet around my gear shift.
Thank you God!

So……
What’s in your car????


One Sweet Shot

Shutter Sisters often does a One Sweet Shot day where they honor great photos taken by others.  So today I thought I’d do my own.
This photo was taken with my camera but by a friend’s daughter.
And I just love it…..
We were at the boy’s football game and she took my camera to the park to take pictures of baby girl on the swing.


So, McKenzie, that’s one sweet shot!

Also you homeschoolers check out the sweet give a way happening over IN THE SPARROWS NEST and Our Journey Westward.  They have great brand new ebooks to give away!!!


09 Flag Football Champs

Last night our two younger boys won their championship game and had an undefeated season!  Yea guys.


The Gift

Last Saturday we enjoyed one of Picken’s County’s finest events.  The jockey lot!
It’s like a giant yard sale.  GIANT.
Normally the jockey lot operates on Wednesdays and it’s just begun to open on Saturday and Sunday.
So last weekend we packed up and went “jockeying” on Saturday morning.

There were not a lot of vendors there last Saturday because, well, it’s just catching on.
But we were there for a purpose.
We just didn’t know it was a divine purpose.

Walking down the aisles looking at treasures such as knives, bread, homemade bird houses, used toilets, and tons of glassware we stopped to look at a table with a hodge podge of things including a really cool looking wood inlaid guitar.

Our oldest son plays and loves the guitar.  He actually has one electric guitar we bought and one that someone gave to us.  So we’ve been blessed already with one guitar.

But he was admiring this beautiful guitar with an asking price of $200.
Since I was not interested in thus said guitar I moseyed on down a couple of tables to look at a somewhat clean but beautiful used toilet.

Yea, just kiddin’.

A few minutes later here comes my son with a guitar strapped to his back with a look of excitement on his face.

“Mom, that man just gave me this guitar!!”

WHAT??

“Yea, mom.  Really.  I was just looking at it and he said I could have it.”

So like any well intended young (ha ha) mom I asked if he had thanked the man.
And he responded that he was so excited he forgot.  So he went back and thanked him while I held the guitar.

When Rocket Man returned from taking Baby Girl to the bathroom he got the story.  So the excitement began again.

Now, one strange part of this story is that neither Rocket Man nor I had paid much attention to this man.  Couldn’t tell you what he looked like or the other things on his table.  But my oldest son can!  Neither of us were a part of thanking the man.  It was all just between my son and the “guitar man”.

We continued walking around the Jockey Lot talking about how God provides for us.  My oldest has a very generous heart and gives freely.  He’s always blessing someone with his allowance or money he has.  We talked about how God sees our hearts and blesses us when we least expect it.  This was also a good lesson for my second born son because he struggles more with giving (like his mom).  I battle within myself over giving the smallest things at times.  It’s a place God has been working on with me for years.

When we were about to leave the Jockey Lot our first born decided he wanted to go thank the “guitar man” one more time.  So Rocket Man and I waited while he walked back down the aisle to thank the man.

When he returned we asked him what the man said and he responded, “He told me that he wanted me to have it and to use it for the Glory of the Lord.”

WHAT??
WOW!!

Being the visual person that I am I’m picturing this big warrior angel whispering in the man’s ear, “Give this child the guitar.”  And I’m thinking of how I would have wrestled with that request.  And I’m wondering if that man did.  I think he was immediately obedient.

So that led me to begin to thinking about Jesus smiling down on his servant’s trust and obedience.  I’m thinking about what immediate obedience sets in motion.  The lesson my oldest will never forget, the memory that we’ll carry with us as his parents, the lesson to my second born, and all the people’s lives HE will touch as my son tells the story, as we tell the story.

I remember how blessed we felt tithing my husband’s severance package.
And I pray that God will bless the Guitar Man.
And that one day when I get to heaven he’ll be there beside Jesus and I’ll see him and get to thank him myself.


Photo taken on my cell phone on way home from the Jockey Lot.


The Lies….

I am reading a rather interesting book.  My friend Scooper talked about it a few days ago and I knew it was one I had to read.

The book?   ABBA’s CHILD

It’s amazing.

And just the book I need to be reading now. 

I love how the author (Brennan Manning) refers to Satan and his lies as THE IMPOSTOR.   Ah, such an appropriate word for the one who wants me to see myself as something other than The Beloved, Abba’s Child.

Some of the author’s quotes about the impostor are:

Impostors are preoccupied with acceptance and approval.  Because of their suffocating need to please others, they cannot say no with the same confidence with which they say yes.  And they overextend themselves in people, projects, and causes, motivated not by personal commitment but by the fear of not living up to others’ expectations.

The impostor is what he does.

The impostor is a liar.

The impostor is attentive to the size, shape, and color of the bandages that veil my nothingness.

The impostor demands to be noticed.

Hello

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Any of this sound familiar?
Any of this feel like the lies we buy into every day?

"Satan’s greatest psychological weapon is a gut level feeling of inferiority, inadequacy and low self-worth."
"It is one thing to feel loved by God when our life is together but what happens when we come face-to-face with the human condition?" 

When our life falls apart?

When bad things happen?

Manning goes on to say "the spiritual life begins with the acceptance of our wounded self.  The person who encounters God with naked trust"

The person who knows that God loves us sin and all.
Just the way we are.

"It takes a profound conversion to accept that God is relentlessly tender and compassionate toward us  just as we are – not in spite of our sins and faults, but with them."

May you see yourself as Abba’s Child today.
Laughed over, loved, sang over, and wooed.


Who does he think he is?

Fred, that is.
Remember Fred?  The Rather Large (16.8 lb) cat?
Well, Fred is all better and his "dizzy kitty" has completely gone away and he’s back to being fat, lazy, sweet ole Fred.
But look at this…

And this is what he does when we open the sliding door….

Does he think he’s the king or something?
Boy he acts like he owns the place doesn’t he?
Thanks to all you who prayed from him.  I’d say he’s had a 100% recovery.


Update #2 on Baby Girl

Well, today we’ve decided to throw up all our pain meds.  Which has been messy.  She’s not eating and won’t take any medicine.  I did get some phenigrin in her.  Yep, don’t know how to spell it so that’s all you get.
Here’s a cell phone photo from the hospital. She’s talking on the phone.  Playing her leapster and taking her blood pressure all at the same time.


Photo update on Baby Girl

We had quite the wait yesterday at the hospital and the nurses let us fool around with some of the equipment they’d be using so she wouldn’t be scared of it.
So we played around with the mask.  It smelled like vanilla.


Both dad and I were pooped

Then the team arrived and you could see the fear in her eyes begin.

But I got her to smile for one picture.

Here she is today.  In quite a bit of pain and very emotional.

We’ve kept a lot of ice on her arm and the pain meds flowing.
I’m exhausted and pray for the strength to care for all the kids tomorrow.
Requesting your prayers…….


Update on Baby Girl

After our millionth x-ray yesterday we found out that baby girl’s arm was not healing properly.  And that meant surgery and a pin in her arm.  So we spent yesterday and last night at the hospital.  It was not a bad experience until she came out of anesthesia.  And that was rough.  She comes out of anesthesia the way I do…kicking and screaming.
 
It took a lot of morphine to get her comfortable enough to bring home.  She’s on codeine now.

It’s 3 am and we’re up for food and meds.
Please pray for her pain and the swelling in her hand.  She is right handed and that is the arm she has broken. 

We’re hoping and praying that the cast they’ll put on will be off before we go to the beach.
 
She’s in a splint now and a sling.
Updates to come.  Hopefully we’ll be back to sleep soon.
Thanks for your prayers.
Please pray for peace and understanding in our house as I try to take care of our three boys too.  We’re two weeks into this and basically starting all over again now.  So it will be 6 weeks or more before we are out of a cast.

I hope this makes some sense.
Need to go get an ice pack.

Julie 


I HEART faces entry

When thinking of hats this is the photo that came to mind.  This little one’s mother is so sweet and dear.  She’s a wonderful friend of mine with the sweetest children.


Go check out all the wonderful pictures at I Heart Faces.Com


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