Terribly Interesting

Hello, friends of Gomer. Just in case you were worried, we didn't just sit back and coast through our week. Our sweet girls came down with a gross tummy bug. It was one girl after another getting sick over and over. This lasted from Thursday to Sunday. Denbigh and I didn't get sick like the girls, but it sure knocked us down. Thankfully, it seems all are rested and recuperated. I had to miss the baby shower of my dear friend, but I was thankful to care for and snuggle my sweet babies. Mr. Denbigh did laundry for several days straight while I cared for the girls. I am thankful for him. One of the things God is continually telling me to do is to share my life and allow it to encourage others. The good, the bad, and the vomit. One thing that is really important to me is my marriage to Denbigh. There were many marriages in the generation before us and so we pray that God will redeem this by stirring our hearts to covenant. I'm currently in the middle of Praying For...

Hello friends of Gomer,  as you may know, we refinanced our house. It has no doubt been the craziest ride. Wednesday night I called my husband at worship practice and told him that I wanted him to come home right then. I was feeling really odd. For a woman who is never ill, it was disturbing me. On Thursday, my left arm had gone numb along with the left side of my face. These are symptoms of a stroke and a heart attack. I headed to Urgent Care that evening and received my first EKG. I rocked it. Apparently, there is some inflammation in my neck from the car wreck. They couldn't pinpoint the source of the facial tingling, but he thought it might be viral because of my other symptoms. I don't currently have insurance (you can pray for that) so I was worried about the cost of all this. We were handing over everything we had the next day. Someone came in to the Urgent Care that night and paid my bill. I couldn't make this stuff up, beloved. That was the night before our cl...

Hello, friends of Gomer. It seems that we have house insurance again. Being in a renovation is always more complicated and more expensive. It's done though. The man that Denbigh talked to prayed for him on the phone. As soon as we are done with most of the work, we can drop the crazy high rate we must pay because we are in renovation. We have some deep love for all of y'all who come stay here. I hope you know it. I hope you look at us and see the love of God for you. My man has been ripping down the ceiling in my studio. It's a fantastic space if you haven't seen it. It was a 30 plus foot sleeping porch that had been enclosed. There are windows wall to wall. There had been a bit of water damage on the ceiling and we had to take it down. That excess wood is what I am taking to make the signs that I am selling. The studio is on the second floor. When the ceiling is gone, it opens to the edges of the third floor. Some of the windows were broken up there and birds ha...

Isaiah 61 A few weeks ago, I noticed a theme occurring in my art for the week. Several of the pieces that were ordered centered around Isaiah 61. Of course, it is a beloved verse to many. We had it read at our wedding. It has stood out to me over the the past almost eleven years as I remember it like a benediction on our hearts.  They will rebuild the ancient ruins and they will raise up the former devastations. As we are in the midst of all of this turmoil with redoing things for our house, our Abba was reminding me of a word spoken over my heart. He has restored family and friend. He has given us a heart to lavish the wounded with love and call it back to Him. Sometimes, He talks to me and my soul remembers. Rebuilding is hard. Restoration is akin to grace in the fact that it must keep coming even when things are looking quite bleak. Blessed be His name.

I have been praying for some time for God to pay off our house and redeem Gomer. Of course, the roller coaster of finance is never fun. As I look at it, I had to think that this might be the first leg of God answering my prayer...the first domino to fall. The fact that my man and I are going to be able to write a check for $25,000 is quite bewildering. To me, it seems somewhat miraculous. In September, our budget was nearing the bottom of the barrel. Look at us a few months later. We are going to write a check for 1/6th of what we owe on the house. Bless the Lord. I kept wanting to try to make the numbers come together, but God assured me that He was working. I took my friend a pie and was politely handed $2,000. A friend told us God had put us on his heart and gave another $2,000. Anonymous donations came in through our church. One of my friends gave up half of her 10 year anniversary vacation money. People we giving $10, $100, $250. I always notice that we will get the same amoun...

I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it quite a lot really. Perhaps it was because it told much about French culture or because of the author's candor. Either way, I liked it. My school philosophy and certain parenting ideas are far from hers, but I enjoyed her telling of her journey. Pam talked about French day care, public school, eating out, having twins, infertility, and being a woman. I found her refreshing.  We live in a society in America that seems to cripple our children from growing up. We do everything for them, over praise, micro-manage, put them in every activity, and never say no. In France, Pam noticed a remarkable difference in the polite behavior of the children there. She took note of so many things. The French never yell at their children. They are stern with saying no and do not answer every whim that their children have. They teach them to play and entertain themselves. They give them some autonomy. They learn how to be adults.   Her talk about...

Last year was sure one for the books. All the odds just started stacking up against us. If crazy attack out of nowhere is confirmation of calling, we are confident of our calling. There is much beauty and relief in being brought to your knees for a thing. Since purchasing this house, I have thought long and hard about Hosea purchasing Gomer back from slavery in Hosea 3:2. Hosea couldn't afford to just go pay cash when God told him to buy her back. He gave everything he had and paid the rest in barley. She was a pearl of great price in the hands of the Lord. That's where we sit. Our crazy house situation has left us needing to come to the table with $23,000 and closing costs. That's about $25,000. We cannot pay half in barley, either.  I drew a deep breath when we received this news. I started looking at our funds. If we take our fund for our ministry car, our restoration and operating budget for 2014, and all of our Christmas money, we have $23,300. It actually b...