Musings from the Threshold

Monthly Archives: May 2008

Whisper or Brick?

This was in an email I received this morning…

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind. Sometimes when
you don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It’s your choice:
Listen to the whisper or wait for the brick.

A Special Day

Last Saturday, I met up with one of my dearest and longest-known friends at Forest Park in St. Louis for a fundraising walk. Tracy was walking for NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), and Stephen and I walked the 3.1 miles with her. It was a great opportunity to visit and enjoy the company of a super special friend.

The walk was well organized and well attended. Here’s a shot of a very small portion of the walkers:
After the walk, we went to the zoo for a bit. Stephen was tired, so I carried him in my wrap. It was great for him, but my hip didn’t make it long with the extra weight. We made it through the River Walk portion of the zoo, and saw neat things like Giant Anteaters:
And Asian Elephants:
Then Stephen and I headed for home and Tracy enjoyed the zoo for a couple more hours. But before we left, some nice young ladies took our picture for us. Can you tell Stephen is tired? 😉
Thanks for a wonderful time, Tracy!

7 Things about Random Me

Yes, I think it’s supposed to be 7 random things about me, but if the shoe fits…

1) I am a birth nut. I think that the process of pregnancy and birth is one of the most amazing of God’s creations. To carry and give birth to my children has been an honour and a privilege.

2) Logging hours is the bane of my existence as a home school mom.

3) I want a tattoo. Not just any tattoo, but a specific one. It will be my reward when I reach my goal weight.

4) I twirl my hair. My Mama twirls her hair (though not as much as when she was a little girl like me). My daughters twirl their hair (and started to when they were too young to have been imitating). I believe hair twirling is genetic.

5) I love road trips. Even with 7 kiddos!

6) I would like to visit my birth city of Valencia, Spain. That’s near the top of a long list of overseas travelling I’d love to do.

7) I’m rather claustrophobic. Caves, semi-trailers combined with concrete guardrails, even small spaces in movies or computer games. And having the blankets over my head. I’d better stop; I’m getting twitchy.

I realize this is horribly cheating, but if you haven’t yet been tagged, consider yourself tagged now. I think most of you who read my blog have already done this. If you haven’t, get busy!

Quiet

I haven’t blogged since last Thursday. It seems ages ago. We faced a bitter disappointment in the Missouri legislature this year, which came to a head on Friday the 16th, the last day of session. I’m not going to be blogging much about it, but I’ve been doing a lot of processing – internally, verbally with Jonathan, and by phone and email with other leaders in the Missouri work to legalize professional midwives. And in lots of conversation with my heavenly Father!

The phrase “bitter disappointment” seems quite cliche, and I apologize. It fits, though it’s a bit understated. I thought I had dealt with all sorts of disappointment, but our experience this year has been different than any other in my life.

So, I’d treasure your prayers as I process, seek to learn what the Lord has to teach me through this, and work to establish future direction in this area.

And I’ll try to get back to blogging. I still have lots of pictures to share, though I got many posted during my hours of waiting by my computer for the next task in the last week of session.

Fun with the folks on Mother’s Day

We so enjoyed having my parents here with us for almost a week! We were given a terrific excuse to have them for a visit when Mama was invited to speak at the Mother Daughter Tea and Papa was asked to speak at the chapel on Sunday.

We are blessed that our folks are some of our best friends, and we had a fun time playing Rage with them on Sunday night.



Birthday Pool

On a cold and drizzly day in May, the Blessings’ birthday present from Papa and Gramma Byrd arrived – a virtually indestructible pool (aka stock tank)!

And a few days later, on a slightly warmer (and sunny) day, some of them got in!

Our own little Polar Bear Club.