Creativity and Thankfulness

Isn't this high chair lovely? My wonderful husband sanded, stained, and finished this chair for me and our sweet little guy. I love it so much and it is so easy to clean. My husband put a few extra coats of finish on the tray for all of the extra cleaning it will need. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. God is so gracious to me!

Now for the test run...I think that he likes it! Don't you?

I also thought that I would share my latest project. A friend of ours is having a baby (her due date is tomorrow) and I made this for her. I love these little baby blocks with the ribbon tags. I have made little taggie blankets before but not a block. I am pleased with how it turned out but next time I will make it a little smaller. I think that this will be a fun gift to give her along with "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" as she is having a little boy (A for Asher!). All of my boys love the Mike Mulligan book so I hope she will too!

What are some favorite books that your little boys like?

Summer

What a joy summer is! God has blessed us so much this year! We have enjoyed a enormous harvest of apricots, peaches, and plums.

 

The children have loved every minute of this summer season. With exuberant enthusiasm they have entered into all of the work (and eating)!

It is so wonderful to have land for our little guys to run around on. They always find so many interesting plants, rocks, sticks, and bugs. Truly, this is a lovely childhood!

In the evening and on the weekends, we have spent our time going from tree to tree picking all of the lovely goodness off and placing into boxes. Then, we take it home. What does one do with 1500 pounds of fruit?

My soul overflows with thankfulness to the Lord for His many blessings. Why am I tempted to complain? Oh, that I may grow sweeter and sweeter with an attitude of joyful contentment and thankfulness for Him many blessings.

    Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
        and let us exalt his name together!
    I sought the LORD, and he answered me
        and delivered me from all my fears.
    Those who look to him are radiant,
        and their faces shall never be ashamed.
    This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
        and saved him out of all his troubles.
    The angel of the LORD encamps
        around those who fear him, and delivers them.
    Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
        Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
    Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
        for those who fear him have no lack!
    The young lions suffer want and hunger;
        but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
(Psalm 34:3-10 ESV)

No Other Refuge

The following quote has been so encouraging to me as I struggle with chronic illness and the daily life of a wife, mother, and homemaker. There is no other refuge but Christ!

Blessed Lord, bend Your pitying eye of love and mercy upon me today. Draw near to me, as I venture once more on praying and on pleading ground.

Alas! O God, how little have I improved the time that is past! I am a wonder to myself, that with all my deep ingratitude and utter vileness--I am yet permitted to approach Your footstool! I have sinned against light and love--warning and mercy--grace and privilege. The retrospect of life--is a retrospect of guilt. I mourn over my manifold shortcomings--the alienation of my heart from You--the fitfulness of my spiritual frames--the ebbings and flowings in the tide of my love. When tried by the lofty and unerring standard of Your Word--how are my best actions and duties marred with defilement! How much self-seeking and self-glorying--and how little animated by the predominating motive of love to You, and singleness of eye to Your service!

Blessed Jesus! I flee anew to the pavilion of Your love! I have no other hope, no other refuge--but in Your finished work--Your matchless atonement--Your spotless righteousness! There is in You, an all-sufficiency for every need. Finite necessities cannot exhaust Infinite fullness. Let me hear Your voice saying, "Your sins, which are many--are all forgiven!"

Transform me more and more into Your own image. May I know more and more, the happiness of true holiness--that I am really blessed in seeking to walk so as to please You. May the power of grace wax stronger and stronger--and the power of sin wax weaker and weaker. May trials and crosses become light and easy to me--when borne in a spirit of meek, unrepining submission to Your Divine will. May this quiet every doubt and misgiving: "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things!"

~ John Duff, from the book "Evening Incense"

I hope that this encourages you today as well! I pray that the power of His grace may grow stronger and stronger in my heart and in the outworkings of my salvation.

Marriage

Recently, we went through what I have affectionately called "wedding season". We attended two weddings, three bridal showers, and one bachelor party in the space of about a month. In the two weddings we helped decorate, serve, clean, and other miscellany. With all of the new love and marriage in the air, it has really made me remember our own lovely wedding and all of the beautiful memories surrounding it. Even more, when trying to write and think of advice for the new couples, I remembered some of the best advice given to me. My husband and I have been married for almost eight years now and this advice from others has been the most helpful:

~ Christ should be the foundation of your marriage. You should seek His love and a relationship with Him before all others.

~ Marriage is a calling to die to yourself and learn to serve your family.

~ As a wife, it should be a delight for me to always speak well of my husband and to NEVER criticize him or complain about him to others. I should always praise him in front of others. The wife of the pastor who married us gave me this advice.

What advice were you given that has been most helpful?

Joyful Diligence

Dear Friends,

 It has been a long time since I posted! This summer has been so busy with all of the lovely produce we have been getting. I have been so busy canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc! It always seems in the midst of summer with all of the heat and work of the harvest that a lot of our Lord's words seem clearer than ever. I have been thinking mostly on the verses that discuss diligence vs. laziness. So many times this summer I have thought of how tired I am and have been lazy!  It seems as if there is a never ending list of things to do.  So, I have been comtemplating this lovely work the Lord has given me to do and have found myself lacking in diligence. Ouch! I have been quite convicted of this. It seems too that along with my laziness has come complaining as well. Why do those two always seem to be best friends? Laziness and discontent.

 Well, no more! I have been praying earnestly and asking that Lord if He might, through His grace, transform my heart more and more each day to be a diligent and grateful worker. I long for my home to be a place of beauty, joy, and rest for my husband and boys. With diligent and joyful work in my home, I can accomplish this desire. Would you pray for me as well- that I might glorify the Lord more with my happy heart of diligent service?