The most delicious sweets that I’ve ever had. 🙂
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Asher Timothy turned one today, and we once again rejoice with gladness to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). He is our happy boy, and we praise the Lord for him.
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord ~ Psalm 144:15
Thanksgiving 2011
Thanksgiving 2012
Thanks be to God for His merciful gifts!
Christmas!! Okay, well, that’s at least what Gabriel said when we woke up to a few inches of snow the other day. I think he was a wee bit disappointed when he realized that snow does not automatically equal Christmas. 😉 But he was still rather excited that it meant pulling out snowclothes and going out to enjoy the sparkly white world! It lasted all weekend, and now it has doubled & is still snowing. What fun! It makes me even happier that my Christmas gift crafting is just about tied up, and my holiday baking plans are now being schemed & family Advent evenings are being planned.
We love this world God created, and where He has planted us. 🙂
This morning when we awoke to a thickly white, crunchy world (frost, not snow! not yet anyway…) and a chilly house, I decided it would be Mandatory Jammy Day. Incidentally, we have never had a day spent in our pajamas here before. Gabriel didn’t quite know how to handle it! It took a wee bit of convincing, hehe. But every time he asked if he could put clothes on ~ or rather, when he asked if he could “at least put on pants and a shirt; not clothes, just pants and a shirt!” ~ I would offer something else fun and distracting to do. Let’s build a blanket fort! Let’s read books in there with a flashlight! Let’s eat boxed mac and cheese for lunch! Let’s bake a cake and you can use the mixer by yourself! Let’s watch a video and eat the M&Ms out of trail mix!
What a day. 🙂 I did actually get some other things done, but for the most part, it was a day spent just having fun with the boys and loving on them in a creative way we had not done before. Here’s some [humbling] picture proof of our Jammy Day for your pure and utter enjoyment.
And while I’m not ready to divulge details or pictures or anything much pertaining to Tiny Ten… please know that YES, our Tiny Ten is growing and strong! The mercy of God in this is incredibly kind and beyond humbling!
“Every time I look at the photograph of us in the delivery room–our eyes closed, lids swollen, faces pale and dreamlike–I think of survival and yes relief, but also a certain sadness. How terrified you must have been, jolted loose from your cave of water and my heartbeat, then pumped and squeezed roughly along by hard, rubber-like muscles. And then for you to emerge bloody and blue with the cord around your neck, the doctors hurrying to free you, the shock of light, the distress of your body being pulled every which-way. I wanted you on my belly…
It will be days, no, a lifetime before the sense of awe leaves me, for your birth, my son, is somehow connected to the heart of the universe where pain has presence because of divine decree. Jesus, Lamb of God, was torn by wolves of pain as we were, but his was unto death and more terrible because he took our sins upon himself. That was so you could have eternal life. There is meaning in our suffering, for we tasted in some way I cannot explain, the Lord himself. It is so for every child and his mother…
I love your hands, cloud puffs, pillows. Soft or not, the hands are bossy, going for my hair, nose, ribbon on my blouse–anything they desire the hands grab, to go of course into the mouth with its voracious gums.
There are also your cheeks, soft as dumplings, dimpling when you laugh. I love your laugh, proceeding first from the eyes, then spreading to your mouth in a grin that seems as big as you are–and on to the belly that shakes as you laugh, fat puppy’s belly, plush toy, marshmallow boy…”
~from “Sketches of Home” by Suzanne Clark, pp.43, 44, 45~
It’s true. That excerpt above pretty much nails it on the head.
Our sweet boy, whom Gabriel calls Asher-boy and we often refer to simply as “the happy boy” (he lives up to his name!), has been our arms for half a year now. Wow. Our hearts are full.
For the first time, not long ago I was told (much to my surprise, I might add) “two little boys? you’ve got your hands full.” I brushed my surprise away, smiled, and said, “believe me when I say that I could not be more thankful or blessed to have these boys filling my hands.” Beaming and nearly brimming with tears, I kept walking through the grocery store.
I feel that, similar to Mary, I too am most blessed among women. Perhaps every mama feels this way. 🙂
Asher is 14 pounds of contentment, joy, rest, and determination all rolled into one slobbery, sweet, happy bundle of wiggly, squealy bliss. He lights up my world. He wins over everyone who sees him. And I realize that I don’t just have an apple of my eye ~ I have a whole tree of apples in there.
Amen.
I can’t hold all of my children today, but I am dreaming of them. Here I am with all of their names on my necklace and on their arrows in our quiver. I never thought I’d be mommy of nine!
How I love my precious littles! Gabriel (without prompting) told me this morning in the car that he can’t wait to get to heaven so he can meet God and his sisters. That boy melts my heart in so many ways.
He wrote me a Mother’s Day card for the first time. And he picked me wildflowers! (In addition to helping his daddy make me breakfast in bed!)
Here I am with my two redheaded miracles. My heart overflows with gladness. They rise up and make me blessed!!
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her.
Proverbs 31:28
Some pictures:
A Scripture passage:
Colossians 3:1-17
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
A prayer:
Worker of wonders,
Continue to make my [family] righteous, so that [we] may have peace, quietness, and security forever. O Lord, be gracious to [us]; I wait for You. Be [our] arm every morning, [our] salvation in the time of trouble. For You are exalted, for You dwell in high; fill [us] with justice and righteousness, and be the stability of [our] days, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; let the fear of You be [our] treasure. Arise, O Lord, lift Yourself up; be exalted in [our family].
Help [us] to become [a family] who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes [our] hands, let they hold a bribe, who stops [our] ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts [our] eyes from looking on evil. Then [we] will dwell on the heights; [our] place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; [our] bread will be given [us]; [our] water will be sure.
Let [our] eyes behold You in Your beauty. Be with [us] in majesty, for You are [our] judge; You are [our] lawgiver; You are [our] king; You will save [us] (Isaiah 32 & 33).
~Andrew Case, Prayers of an Excellent Wife~
A quote:
“Our whole relation to God is rooted in this: that His will is to be done in us and by us as it is in heaven. …[O]ur first object ought ever to be to ascertain the mind of God.”
~ Andrew Murray~
A poem:
As the misty bluebell wood,
Very still and shadowy,
Does not seek, far less compel
Several word from several bell,
But lifts up her quiet blue–
So all my desire is before Thee.
For the prayer of human hearts
In the shadow of the Tree,
Various as the various flowers,
Blown by wind and wet by showers,
Rests at last in silent love–
Lord, all my desire is before Thee.
~Amy Carmichael~
