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Oh my goodness, it actually works. The voice you hear when you click on listen is me is that cool or what. listen

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LIF

I heard this song today for the first time. I don't know if its new or old.

It touched me....I love these words for they express where I am just now.

"Come and fill my soul with who you are
In my silence, You still hear me"

Wow. Thank you, Lord that you hear even when I don't/can't speak, when I am at a loss for words.

You DO fill me up with WHO you are.

- A Loss For Words -

Charles Billingsley
I've prayed in the silence

And felt your presence near

I've walked in the garden

And found you waiting there

I have stood with the masses

To lift my hands in praise

I've knelt there all alone and called your name

Yet today I'm just not sure

Of what I should say

I am empty, You are holy

Come and fill my soul with who you are

In my silence, You still hear me

CHORUS

You are holy, you are worthy

The blessed Son of God, the morning star

You are glorious, you are marvelous

But there's so much more, to who you really are

To who you really

Absolutely Beautiful

I'm so distant from His "breath", His "ways" my true "habitation" these days that this is almost over my head. But I still hear enough of His voice to recognize Life when I hear it. Oh my goodness!! Doesn't it just take your breath away??

Birthday Girl!

What an exciting weekend I have just lived through! As long as 6 months ago my hubby began getting things, including me, ready...In Feb. he insisted we get tanning packages (remember Valentines Day??), he encouraged me to get my highlights done...we mapped out our vacations for the year( I complained they were all biking trips!)but he trudged ahead anyway...he arranged all our lodgings and even when our vacation dates changed from Memorial Day weekend to the weekend before my birthday(his sister was supposedly going to be out of town on the holiday) I wasn't too suspicious...though of course I figured he'd do something for me, he's not the type to forget and after all.... I was turning 50!

Come the weekend we loaded up and traveled to our hometown in Alabama to just chill out, lie in the sun and visit relatives. Sounds exciting, right?? He asked me to bring a nice outfit for Saturday night cause he was taking me out to a new restaurant for my birthday. Okay...so I was a little bummed that he wasn't doing much...but then I figured I'd get a great present instead. :) Friday we basically lazed around, meeting in-laws for a T-ball game and dinner out. (Little did I know that my sisters and friends were eating out just across the highway and hubby was on the phone periodically to amke sure our paths didn't cross! Had we run in to any one of them I would have caught on right away). On Saturday we dropped Jada off at the cousins and then spent the day across the river in a neighboring town just tooling around eating lunch and ice cream and just hanging out. Hubby wanted us to get home and get ready for our dinner out at a rather early time I thought but hey, if we were driving any distance I could understand that. So we headed home to get dressed about 3pm with plans to leave the house around 4:30..on the way his mom called and asked if we could run her out to a local restaurant where she was supposed to meet her Sunday School class for dinner. I was just a tiny bit irritated that now we would have to be on a schedule..her schedule and I did inquire as to who would have taken her out there if we hadn't been in town...since we're never in town....but he pointed out that he never gets to do things for her and it was right on our way...How could I argue??

As we arrived at her destination...a cool little country barbecue type place with a logcabin feel and red checkered table cloths...she mentioned that my hubby's aunt and uncle would be there and we should come in and see them for a minute. I truly never thought a thing about it. It was so completely something she/we would do that I never gave it a thought, of course we would run in and say hi. Upon on entering the restaurant we headed upstairs to the loft which is an area you can reserve for groups with my mother-in-law leading the way and my husband in the rear. When we reached the top of the stairs my mother in law stepped aside and 50+ guests, who had all been squatting so as not to be seen from the first floor, jumped up and shouted surprise! I about fell over! I was completely in shock! At first I wasn't registering what was happening,,,,then I saw my son (who lives in Orlando),then my daughter and her hubby(who live in Jacksonville)...then my cousin whom I haven't seen in at least 10 years! then an old old friend and another and another...it began to dawn on me! They were all here for me! To see me! I couldn't decide whether to laugh or to cry so I did some of each! I hugged every single person and exclaimed over them and how they had managed to get there or to keep the secret. Unbeknownest to me, my sisters and cousins had spent the two days before hanging out and scrapbooking a memory book for me. I think they had as much fun doing that as they did surprising me. :) My kids had jumped through numerous hoops to make it happen and to get themselves there without me knowing, wisely keeping Jada out of the loop, :) and several people had come from afar. It was wonderful seeing them all again and so much fun having everyone there at the same time!

Its really kind of weird being on the receiving end when you are the one who usually does the planning for such events but it was done very well and I had a wonderful time!

The food was good, I blew out all the candles and opened lots of gifts. I also got to sing (not happy birthday either) with my extended family for the first time in probably 30 years. It was so awesome!...and we still sound pretty good together too!

With so many cameras on hand, I felt like a victim of the paparazzi the entire night. I'm looking forward to getting all those pictures back...but here are a few I already have....

Here they are lying in wait for me...

The look on my face!

Here's my gang, minus Jada but then she was busy with her cousins running wild. :)

My lovely sisters!

Happy Birthday to ME! Loved it!

Check this out!

What a blast I had this past weekend! My hubby, along with some helpers pulled off a surprise, 6 months in the planning...and I was truly clueless! Go here to read about it!

Yard Sales and such

I've lived in the same neighborhood for 3 yrs. In that time no one has befriended me...no one has welcomed me, no one has hardly even spoken to me. I find that appalling, don't you? Neighbors should be...well... neighborly.

A few months ago some things began to change. A new president was elected to the homeowners association...new committees were formed by newer more enthusiastic neighbors. Before I knew it I was on a committee...before I knew it I was head of one....now things are different...much different. We have had meetings and made plans...we have officially welcomed 4 new families to our "hood". People greet one another on the street and stop their vehicles to say hello to neighbors working in their yards. They meet for barbecue at the pool or offer assistance in times of need.

This weekend we had our first big "neighborhood" event. We had a HUGE community yard sale...and it was a huge success! 24 families participating! Loads of fun and loads of customers! Tomorrow we will compile all our leftover stuff and sell it on the cheap down by the entrance, with proceeds going to the association, all the while hanging out together...tonight we had an impromptu neighborhood party. It was well attended and a blast! People feel like they are a part of something, people feel welcome...people like our neighborhood...I like our neighborhood.

In a few weeks we'll be having a movie night, an ice cream social, a 4th of July Parade...all kinds of things planned and who knows what unplanned....yeah...its nice to have good neighbors...its nice to have fun neighbors...its nice to have neighbors who know your name.

Quote of the day...maybe the month

"You never know where Wonderful may come from...."
Zalaine

Graduation

Jadabear is graduating...from Pre-K. Apparently its a big deal...who knew?? lol

I'll be hosting lunch with family coming in especially for the occasion. I'm sure there will be cake and balloons...and probably gifts and cards....surely not...Oh my goodness!

Well it is a special day...at least school's out for the summer afterward...and we get a 3 day weekend! :) Gotta love America!

Congratulations to all you graduates out there...whatever the level! :)

Whose fault is it anyway?

How do you handle problems, difficulties, barriers? Ignore them? Work harder? Separate yourself from the instigators? Blame someone? Persevere?

You know...there is a lot of mess in this world...a lot of very, very difficult stuff. Mountains we can't seem to get over...ever...and you know...when there is someone to blame it all seems easier...ah yes, I can deal with such problems so much better if someone is to blame. Whether its someone else's fault we have this trouble we are in...or whether its our own fault...and we deal with it...we have the capacity to deal with it. Actually we love it when its someone's fault...blame is easy...and when we ourselves are responsible...well we can either easily forgive or we can beat ourselves down and promise to try harder...either one works. Somehow we work through or around these kinds of situations.

In the face of obstacles and problems we are taught all our lives to hang in, work harder, to persevere.

But what about when all our blame or hard work or perseverance does nothing...makes not one little dent....what about when the problem we are experiencing, the difficulty we find ourselves in, the situation that won't budge...what about when its God's fault? What then?

I have found myself in just such a scenario. I have found myself in a place I don't want to be, in a situation I am ill equipped to handle. I have found that all my begging and pleading is to no avail...all my hard work has been in vain...

for God will be God and He will have exactly what He wants and He will have me exactly where He wants me to be. Wriggle and struggle though I may...He has placed me in just this spot and there is no escape...no answer that I can see...no way out...and no end in sight....except He create a door out of thin air...which of course He could...but somehow i don't think He is going to ...not for a while anyway...I think this is of His making...its not my fault...not anyone elses fault...only His. Remember when He shut up the womb of Hannah, Samuel's mother...for years...God did it...it was His fault and Hannah had no recourse, no explanation. He is God..He doesn't owe us an explanation after all.

I was thinking about this recently and in the eyes of my spirit I saw a small stream trickling over rocks in my being, flowing downward from a mountain...this is common for me, as i sense His spirit in me, I often sense water...what was uncommon was this...my spirits eye followed the stream backwards uphill to a large dam built away up the mountain...and behind the dam...a huge reservoir....I have a reservoir within me..I know it...I smell it...I saw it....but He has built a dam, a big white dam to block all that water from flowing out... He is in control of all that I am, all that I have inside...of where I am and who I am...and right now...there is only a trickle of water flowing down.....its His fault.

Sometimes being exactly where God wants you...isn't where or what you thought it was going to be.

Out of the mouth of babes...

Gigi: hully, hully, J, we're gonna be late!

Jada: what does that mean, hully?

Gigi: Its just "hurry" with an accent, like someone with a different language would say it...Gigi's just being silly.

Jada: God made lots of different languages in the world, didn't He?

Gigi: yes, He did.

Jada:....and He speaks all of them, doesn't He?

What R U up 2?

I'm practicing my text messaging...cause I want one of these...
for business purposes, of course. :)

Latest reading material...In Her Shoes....pretty good actually though not my usual style.

Checking this out...the original is right in my neighborhood...

Planting a few of these.....I luv, luv these longer days!

*************************************
Update...I was just informed that I am getting my toes done tonight...courtesy of my loving daughter...I adore pedicures!

Barb's shoppe

Please check out my friend. Barb's new online gift shop A Chelsea Morning's Little Shoppe. She makes fabulous stuff and she's a real sweetheart too!

Sound asleep...and its night, mind you...

Tell me a Story, please.

I was reminded today of one of the believers greatest treasures...one of our greatest weapons against depression, apathy, discouragement, and unbelief. One of the strongest tools for building up ourselves, or brothers and sisters and the entire church.

That secret weapon..that incredible tool is simply this...

The power of the word of our testimony.

How many times in scripture did the Lord admonish the children of Israel to remember...remember aloud...to each other and to their children, to rehearse what God had done, to tell and re tell the story...to paint His words and works on the door posts of their houses so that they might be reminded in their comings and in their goings, to build alters of remembrance. How many traditions do the Israelies have, even today that stem from the telling of God at work in their midst.

This is one of God's simplest yet greatest lessons that the church today gives very little attention to yet if practiced can build up not only ourselves but the body of Christ. I've seen this practice at work and boy does it work.

Think back to when you've had a mighty work of God in your life... what made it more real? ...the telling of it...

What about when you began to hear of the possibility that God might be bigger than you thought...might work the impossible? had done so for someone you knew or knew of?....

What happened in you when you began to hear of God's workings? Didn't faith rise up inside of you? Didn't you think to yourself...Yes, Amen!...I knew He was like that!...somewhere inside you really already knew He was greater than you had imagined..you only needed to hear the testimony of it to be encouraged and reminded.

There was a time when our church wanted to reach out to our neighborhood (we met in a house church setting)..to let them know that we weren't nuts, nor were we dangeous...:) we were just really serious about the Lord and having the church in our city. We invited people from all the churches we knew who were like us and we all met up in our neighborhood one Sat. morning. We had planned a weekend of meetings at the local highschool and had already invited the neighborhood through flyers, radio ads, etc. Now we took it to the streets. We prayed in the front yard of one of the saints then with banners and poster signs in hand we began marching down the streets of our neighborhood toward the highschool for our first meeting. There were probably about 100 of us and we sang as we went. It was a bright fall day with crispy air and the strength of numbers gives you courage so we sang loud and strong. Many of our neighbors waived as we passed by. It was a beautiful thing...right up until we got almost to the school...suddenly the police arrived...one of our neighbors had called them...and some of them came out on the street to yell at us and shout obscentities at us...but guess what? We had permits and had done everything rightly so the police proceeded to protect us rather than remove us...:) They escorted us into the highschool and advised our unruly neighbors to depart.

Later that day and on through the weekend different neighbors tentatively came into our meetings. They were able to see for themselves that we posed no threat to the neighborhood and actually served the same God many of them did.

Was anyone saved that weekend, you ask? Well not unless you count the brothers and sisters in the church there. The messages preached that weekend became the ground work for a deep move of God in that church. For years afterward the saints there and those who had joined us that day referred back to those meetings as a beginning reference point for an entire eyeopening journey in Christ. (the Lion and His Lioness)..and we had the added benefit of now being "public" in the community...no longer hidden but a light set on a hill. Personlly I will never forget the experience nor what God did that weekend in me, in my children, in my church family. It was deep, powerful, and lasting...and as long as those of us who were there tell the story...well ...you see my point?

This is just one testimony of God's amazing greatness...and I am encourged myself just hearing it again.

So I'm issuing a challenge to you...think back to some times that God has been faithful in your life...to some times when he has moved in you or your family or your situation...remember how good He was then or how miraculously He intervened. Now tell me about it. I don't want to hear about lepers in Africa being healed...I want to hear about something first hand. You can write it here or you can do a post of your own and drop me a line to let me know..but I'd love to see this practice reinstated in the church...the practice of His saints reminding themselves of Who God is, what He has done and just How faithful He really is.

Let us remember... Let us declare our Lord!

...and then let us tell it to our children's children and write it on the doorposts of our hearts!

In the News

I don't know about you but I am very disturbed by the situation happening over in Texas with the 400+ children being taken into protective custody. I know and agree that we as a society must protect the innocent among us and we cannot tolerate physical or sexual abuse of children, that goes without saying. However removing over 400 children from the only life they have ever known as well as their mothers with no evidence of abuse other than the testimony of a 16 yr old who cannot be found and the perception that these people are weird...well this is very distrubing to me. It is a very strange situation but there has to be a better way to handle it. If homeschooling is wrong then many of my friends could be in danger of losing their kids, if wanting to isolate your children from this world is wrong, then many a movie star should be scrutinized for keeping their kids behind walls and bars and having nannies and governesses to shelter their kids from the world. Just because these people are different, are isolated, are naive to our modern world, doesn't make them child abusers. These kids are isolated and naive to our culture, they don't know TV or video games or even dolls and crayons! Their very culture may define abuse but no one knows yet if these things they are accused of are true...and in the mean time hundreds of kids have to be being traumatized by the very government trying to protect them! There has to be a better way!
I heard today that the men of the compound have offered to leave if the government will allow the mothers and children to return to the compound with social workers and guards to watch over them there. This seems like a reasonable idea to me, comfortable familiar surroundings...safe and secure in the only world they have ever known. I realize that no matter what your beliefs, if they transgress the laws of the land, you are subject to those laws and we cannot allow even religious beliefs to cross certain lines... so this must be sorted out... but it is a very difficult situation for everyone involved - parents, children and government officials as well.
There really does have to be a better way! I'm praying someone finds it, I'm praying for everyone involved.

April 18th update:
The state is apparently bringing testimony that several minor girls under the Tx marrying age of 16 either are pregnant or they have given birth before the legal age. From what I am hearing there was/is more concrete evidence of the practice of marrying underaged girls off to older men or men in general with or without the girls' consent other than the sixteen year girl's testimony. This is, of course, unacceptable. Children need protection and either their mothers are unable or unwilling to provide that protection so I would think the state has no choice. So sad.

Guess what?

My youngest daughter started school today! Hooray! She is enrolled in a Dental Assisting program and can go on into Dental Hygiene if she wants..and she wants..it is what she has been interested in for a long time. So glad she's finding a path!
...And to celebrate...
she and I are going here

How cool is that?!?

Proud Mama

He did it !!

Now to get him to shave that beard...:)

In the Motherhood

if you haven't seen this hysterical web show called
In the Motherhood...you have to!
Taken from real life stories from real life moms, each webisode is about 7 minutes long and they are So funny.

Dinner Conversation...

Jada (to her mom) " That Gigi is a special lady....

cause her window goes all the way down"

Gigi (overhearing) "Well that certainly makes me dang special!"

Jada - "and beavers build dams"

Poppi - "That's great cause Gigi being a special lady and beavers building dams goes together. What makes you so funny?"

Jada - "I learned it on Curious George"