As you’ve likely already read, our sweet Gracie turned 6 on Monday. We had a fun evening celebrating her birthday.

After a supper of John Denny Casserole, peas & corn, and applesauce, we decided to go outside for a while to enjoy the beautiful evening. We headed up the hill to the pond:

Rolled down the hill:

Smiled beautifully for Mama:

And admired the ducks (who get herded up and down the hill in the morning and evening until they get bigger):

Then we headed back down to the house for Grace to blow out the candles on her Strawberry Shortcake Cake:

And to just generally have ourselves a grand ol’ time:

(p.s. – the PW SSC Cake was absolutely oh-mercy-me good!)

Just in case you’re visiting because you have good news of my having won a giveaway, here’s a perfect place to comment! Or you can send an email to the address on the right.

Yes, I feel silly making this post. I just don’t want some generous soul to be confused about how to reach me.

 

Tab and Laurie have got me trying out my Picasa collage feature. How fun! You really have to click on the picture to see the big version, though.

Yesterday, I found out about this huge spring giveaway party at Sew, Mama, Sew. I’ve spent most of my spare moments since checking out the myriad of giveaways. So fun! There are three categories of giveaways, and I’m still working my way through the first. I would consider it too much “wasted” time, but I’m also being inspired to make some nifty stuff for my family. So I’m convincing myself it’s all good. Thought it was about time I shared my find – Have fun!

So I woke up this morning grumpy. Lousy attitude, stinky outlook.
I scrolled down my FB homepage, and our friend Elrond had posted this video. Talk about a dose of attitude adjustment!

Visual depictions of Christ’s suffering for us can never compare with even the physical aspect of what He endured. And then there was the real suffering, the suffering that purchased my pardon – separation from the Father while He bore the eternal consequences of my sin (and that of everyone else for all of time…). It is literally beyond my comprehension, but videos like this remind me – give me the tiniest grasp of the most minute scrap. What wondrous love, indeed!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgwGY6xpvLI&hl=en&fs=1]

I love that the video complier included scenes depicting the resurrection. HIS sacrifice was enough! The work was done! Salvation, so far from free of cost, and yet freely available to me.

Fourteen years ago I found a great treasure in a small package. Emmaus Bible College, where I studied for two years, has an annual book sale in the library. In ’95, one of my precious finds was a little book by George MacDonald called The Diary of an Old Soul. MacDonald is one of my favorite authors, and to find this book of poetry, a stanza of seven lines for each day of the year, was thrilling. In the years since as I’ve read it, I’ve been alternately thrilled and pierced to the quick, with many stops in between.

I’ve never managed to read The Diary on a truly daily basis, which probably makes a statement about my consistency and discipline that I’d rather not consider…
This year, I have read more often than in the past, at intervals close enough that I am able to start where I last read and catch up to the stanza for the day. It has been a treat!

Just to whet your appetite, here are a few of my May favorites (so far):

5.
Thy great deliverance is a greater thing
Than purest imagination can foregrasp;
A thing beyond all conscious hungering,
Beyond all hope that makes the poet sing.
It takes the clinging world, undoes its clasp,
Floats it afar upon a mighty sea,
And leaves us quiet with love and liberty and thee.

10.
Christ is the pledge that I shall one day see;
That one day, still with him, I shall awake,
And know my God, at one with him and free.
O lordly essence, come to life in me;
The will-throb let me feel that doth me make;
Now have I many a mighty hope in thee,
Then shall I rest although the universe should quake.

11.
Haste to me, Lord, when this fool-heart of mine
Begins to gnaw itself with selfish craving;
Or, like a foul thing scarcely worth the saving,
Swoln up with wrath, desireth vengeance fine.
Haste, Lord, to help, when reason favours wrong;
Haste when thy soul, the high-born thing divine,
Is torn by passion’s raving, maniac throng.

15.
Afresh I seek thee. Lead me—once more I pray—
Even should it be against my will, thy way.
Let me not feel thee foreign any hour,
Or shrink from thee as an estranged power.
Through doubt, through faith, through bliss, through stark dismay,
Through sunshine, wind, or snow, or fog, or shower,
Draw me to thee who art my only day.

19.
O Christ, my life, possess me utterly.
Take me and make a little Christ of me.
If I am anything but thy father’s son,
‘Tis something not yet from the darkness won.
Oh, give me light to live with open eyes.
Oh, give me life to hope above all skies.
Give me thy spirit to haunt the Father with my cries.

If these lines resonate with you, I have good news! While I can’t easily find you a beautifully yellowed copy of The Diary of an Old Soul printed in 1927, the book is readily available in other forms. For free, you can download it at Project Gutenberg. You can also find it in several formats (including Kindle!) at Amazon.

We’ve got lots going on these days. Not so much on the work end of things, for which prayers would be appreciated, but we’re trying to take advantage of Jonathan’s time off by getting stuff done around the home front. I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

But for right now, I need to do some kitchen clean up before friends show up for some play time!

I’ve been posting pictures on my Yesterday blog lately!

My brother is one of the most beloved people in my life. I’m so proud of him and I think he’s fabulous. I think he likes me a bit, too.

Here are some shots from when we were little, taken of slides on my wall yesterday…

These sheep were outside of our apartment in Spain:

Eric, in Spain, ready for school:

Eric and I (and our beautiful Mama in the first picture), when we lived in Chicago briefly after coming home from Spain:



Eric and I at the Allan’s house (at Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp):

And here we have some of the varied faces of Eric as a younster:

Thanks for enjoying my journey with me. I love you, Bubba!

I’ve been waiting many years to see brand new baby pictures of me, and my desire has at last been fulfilled. Here are some of the pictures I took of slides we looked at this week. It was so special to see my family when I was a baby. And isn’t my Mama gorgeous for having just birthed an almost-nine-pound baby??
At the hospital:




And at home: