Terribly Interesting

 Somehow, I have only managed to take one picture today. You are probably wondering what it even is. Well, the little straps that hold on the car seat cover on the baby's car seat were stretched out and kept coming lose. I decided to tie knots and duct tape them so they wouldn't move anymore. I took this picture for my daddy. I knew the ingenuity would make him proud. My car seats were out of my car because we had to take the car into be looked at. My car was handling funny in the rain the other day, but I thought it was due to extreme nature of the thunderstorm. Then, as I was driving it around during the week, my brakes went out. I mean, pedal to the floor, coasting to a stop went out. I have never had that happen before so it shook me up a little. Brake fluid flushed, new brakes, new tires and six hundred big ones later, I'm on the road again driving like a dream. As you may know, Charlie and Dottie Duke gave the car to us after we hit the hog in the Honda. It'...

I finished Heart Wide Open last night. I wanted to like it more than I did. Who wouldn't? Look at that cute dress on the cover. Who doesn't want more intimacy with Christ? I did think the book was chock-full of great thoughts on intimacy. I gleaned some lovely things from it's pages. I was slowly digesting it and enjoying it and then about thirty pages in, the author tells us that she a blogger/radio host of something called The Belle of All Things Southern. I think this raised the bar of what I was expecting from this book. I started looking for warmth and charm and the ear marks of a good Southern story teller. Those things just weren't there. The book is more instructional. Even though I thought the book was full of good information, I didn't fall in love as I had hoped. I read some of her blogs and I thought they were great. So check those out. You might read this book too. Just don't go into it looking for Southern charm. *Her other books look really...

So, hey y'all. I already asked my husband what day it is four or five times today. It's Wednesday. In honor of this hump day, I will share some great things. First, I follow these funny people on the Instagram called talkingfood. They post pictures and then use the Over app to add words. I would like to share with you one of my favorites. Try not to sing it all day. In the news of other cherry swag, Miss Rya came to visit us yesterday with her precious mama. Please see her repping the Cherry family with her onesie. Lulu actually came up with her name.  The Children of the Day week Two...y'all!  Swoon.  It'll preach.  I was so encouraged by Paul's suffering. I know that sounds odd, but when I read the words "had suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi," it breathed life into me. Such treatment is common to the saints. The next line said that they were bold to declare the gospel anyway. When we encourage, share, or love, the enemy wants to ...

Last night, during the loveliest thunderstorm, I curled up on the couch and finished off the delightful fare that is The Nesting Place. I really did not want this book to end. I kind of wished book number two was out and I could cruise right on into that. This book made me feel at home and comfortable. It was much more about enjoying who we are and what we have than decorating. The creative beauty comes out in each of us when we let go of our need for perfection. As I read through her pages of her rental homes and giving up her dream home, I thought about how unwelcoming a perfect home tends to be. We have stayed in some homes where the hostess obviously wanted everything in its place and was staunch about you not touching her stuff. Basically, all that makes a person want to do is hide out in their room or take extra long bathroom breaks to get away from their condemning eye. I loved how she just put together thrift finds and clipped up curtains to create beauty. She tells ...

Hello, friends. I'm going to attempt to blog from my ipad since this crazy rain keeps knocking out the power. I don't want to accidentally toast our iMac. It was an intense drive to camp today. I was driving myself, but it was making me a nervous wreck. Denbigh drove us from the halfway point. It's wild. There are tornado warnings all around. I'm thankful to have arrived here safely.  We headed home on Saturday and took care of some things around Gomer. On Sunday, Denbigh led worship at our church home. It was nice to see our church family. After an outdoor lunch, I convinced Denbigh to let me take the ol' John Deere out so I could mow the yard. He loves to mow, but it was his only day off until August. He caved and let me mow. Our zero radius mower is so fun, y'all. I liken it to getting to drive a go cart around the yard. You can't help but smile the whole time. It mows our property in no time. We are so thankful for it. Thanks for being awesome, John Dee...

Our friends are here, y'all. My heart is so full. I cannot tell you how much their presence is ministering to my spirit. I have already cried multiple times. They led worship with Denbigh and the Holy Spirit was so palpable. Today I watched as they loved on and listened to staff. Adoption stories were shared. Love has been poured out. It's beautiful, y'all. I wish I could bottle it up and give you some. My sweet little girls are still transitioning to being here. The spiritual warfare is pretty intense and they often get nightmares as we begin our summer. If you think about it, say a little prayer of peace and protection over our girls. May Jesus pour out His Spirit on them.  There is a sweet stirring of anticipation in my soul, y'all. I'm really poised at Jesus' feet wondering what He is up to. I will let you know what unfolds before me. Thank you for your kind words to me as I share my heart here. Your prayers are the most precious gift I cou...

Last night I was sitting at the table reading a book and chatting with Austin when a man came out of his room and asked me for bug spray. I was concerned about his bug problem and went on the hunt for some spray. I came to find out that the problem was a spider. I offered to kill it for him expecting him to say, "no no." He said, "If you wouldn't mind." I went into his room and killed a wolf spider menacingly perched on his sink. The spider did look corn fed . I joked about saving his life. I won't tell you his name, but he is the premier apologetics speaker in the nation. There you go. If you want to know what I am doing here at camp ... I'm saving lives. I'm saving lives, y'all.

I couldn't really sleep last night so I went ahead and got up early this morning to pray and read. I went to sit outside because my husband keeps it so cold in our room that you could hang meat. I told him he would be all the rage with the hot flash crowd. If you know any menopausal women, send them over. I periodically just step outside to thaw out. Look at where I was thawing this morning. It never ceases to amaze me that I get to sit here and look at this every day for three months. I've been reading Heart Wide Open and The Nesting Place. One is on my iPad and one I have a real life copy of. You might call it a hard copy. I prefer the term "real life." I'm loving The Nesting Place. It reminds me of my friend Amy. Her house is quite charming. The lady who wrote Heart Wide Open has a blog/radio show called The Belle of All Things Southern. What! We are practically soul mates. More to come on all of that. Denbigh shared at chapel this morning. It was lovely. ...

Yesterday was pretty exciting here. By exciting, I mean insane. I spend most of my time keeping my youngest from scaling things. Last year, the middle girl fell here and knocked herself out on the tile floor. Eyes rolled back in the head...the whole nine yards. As you can imagine, I am extremely cautious about the baby scaling tall bar stools. Lord help me. Also, the one year old followed her sister to the potty and stuck her hands in it when she was finished going. You know the fun doesn't stop there. She stuck those fingers in her mouth, y'all. To finish up the night, she pooped in the tub. Clean the tub. Rebathe. Is that a word? It should be. I do it often.  This one is a tub pooper.  You are thinking I live a charmed life.  I am here at camp cruising through Beth Moore's Children of the Day . I am on Day Five. I am in love. I keep crying about the deep love of Christ for us in the book of First Thessalonians. I want all of you to do it. Come sit with me. ...

 I just finished up the second book in the Inscribed collection. Unlike the first book, I really enjoyed this one. It was full of great material. I was impressed by the full gamut of topics it covered in its 270 pages. I would definitely give this to someone new to the faith or a friend in need of encouragement. Jennifer covers some great topics such as our identity in Christ, our role in the body, worship, family, and warfare. I loved it. I found myself sending little snippets of the book on to friends. I think this is my number one gauge for how great a book is. Would I text any of it to my besties or beg them to read it and share it with me. Yes. Maybe I should make that a rating system. Would I give it to my bestie? 4.5 stars of likelihood. It is a study and it is designed as a study.  There are verses to look up and answers to fill in. It is engaging and encouraging. Grab your copy.

As I began typing this post, "It's Sunday, Y'all," I flashed back to the time I bought the Fly Lady's days of the week dish towels. I thought they were just perfect. Well, Denbigh Cherry would always put the wrong towel out for the day at hand. Can you imagine? He also switches the Mr. and Mrs. pillows to the wrong side of the bed on occasion just to mess with me. He is a full blown rebel. As you may know, I started working out six days a week a year and a half ago to rectify some health issues. At home I jog and hop around on my rebounder. I needed one at camp so we picked up one at Target. Let me tell you something. Do not buy a rebounder at Target. It is impossible to put together. We returned it and bought one at Walmart. It comes mostly assembled. (My original one has a bar and came from Academy.) Any who, I love it. My goal each day is around 17,000 steps or seven miles. The average person moves less than 3,000 steps a day. That presents a playground ...

It can get a bit lonely here at camp. I know that sounds odd. There are obviously thousands of people here. I just long to have deep and meaningful conversations. I do give counsel and I do visit with people, but y'all, its crazy busy. People are running from one thing to the next. People are pouring their hearts out to serve and love and give. I have only been here a few days and I already have trouble remembering what day it is. It is a solid rush of activity. One thing I do to help me feel stable and connected is to go through a Bible study. I downloaded Beth Moore's new study on to my iPad. Have y'all seen it? As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to get it. It's called Children of the Day. It covers 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. Ive only gone through two days and I am already understanding the draw. In the intro Beth is speaking about the time when Paul and Barnabas sever their relationship and how Silas comes alongside Paul. She asks if there has ever been woundin...

Here we are. This is the twelfth year I have followed Denbigh Cherry around as he leads worship. We are a people always together. Family. For about five or six months every year, we walk out of our day to day lives and link hearts with people who are desperate to share the gospel. They are beautiful people. Of course, there is a messiness and brokeness to all of the saints of God. That mess reminds our heart to lean breathlessly into Christ. Our mess preaches the gospel to us. We need Him. As we have traveled and partnered, we have seen some tabloidesque things happen within the people of God. We have been wounded. We have seen the pain driven in. We have had to share some terrible things with the beloved. Through these years of being behind the scenes and watching these people who are hurting serve, I started praying some specific things. I thought I would ask you to pray them with me.  I pray Isaiah 61. Of course to bind up the broken hearted and to rebuild the ruined ...

Hey y'all, it's been full of life around here and I haven't had a chance to write. Let me catch you all up to speed. Over the past weekend, we had our Spring Work Day. About thirty-five people showed up to work. Tons of work was being done. They cleared about half of the brush and trees (some 45-50 foot tall) along our back fence line. They even cut a few things up for our neighbor. That may have made me get a little watery eyed. They completed the sheet rock in the guest room and most of the second floor dining room. My friend Amy provided all the lunch. It was fantastic. It made me cry as well. So, there you have it. Lots of people giving and serving as I weep. On Sunday, some of our favorite people were baptized and there was an after party. Who doesn't love a Holy Spirit after party. Then we went back to church to have a night of worship. It was wonderful and you could just sense the presence of Jesus in His beauty all around. Sunday night, our dear fr...

You know, we bought this old mansion to use as a no cost retreat center for pastors and missionaries.  Denbigh is often too busy to work on it. He is always doing work for church or traveling around playing his guitar for Jesus. That leaves me to rehab the house. You can easily come to understand why I am deeply grateful for volunteers. There are so many things that I just cannot do. I am excited for the volunteers coming this Saturday. I cordially invite you to come join us from 8 to 4 this Saturday. There is something for every skill level. If you can keep my kids from running in the street, you can volunteer. I have been filling in the cracks on the floor in our guest room with twine and putty (a trick I learned from This Old House) for months. I did it in my spare time. That's about 7 minutes a day. I could never seem to get it done because there are always people in there. I did it, people. Praise the Lord. It seems like a minor thing, but I bet I have a good cry over...