Terribly Interesting

Well, I am surviving at home. I am recouping after some mold exposure. I have heard that the essential oil Thieves is good for it. I will let you know. I have been wearing my mask and staining the floor. I am further along than this picture and in fact only have 8 boards left. I can't wait to show you this and have you all sleep over. Here are my glasses. Perhaps you notice that there is no arm on the left side. They also collapse in the middle. I figure this will be a thing until my kids are grown or I get lasik. I made an appointment at the eye dr for Friday, but I may need to cancel it. My step mom has been waiting to hear from her doctor all week about her second kidney stone surgery and they just called her and told her that it is tomorrow. These people have had her on the verge of tears with their abrupt behavior. (Thank you to all of you medical personnel that are kind and considerate.)  Ive been at home with no a/c downstairs and no ice maker. It's hot, y...

I started a board on Pinterest to share all the wonderful ideas I find to aid in mothering. I don't know about you, but I need all of the help I can get. The truth is that these girls are on loan to me from Christ and I am learning to treat them as such. Learn with me. Here's my board: http://www.pinterest.com/stephaniecherry/mothahood/ I came across this gorgeous little printout for praying biblical virtues for your kids. I love it because it also gives me an idea of what to praise them for instead of simply how beautiful they are. On the woman's website, there is a little sign up that will send you a virtue each day to pray for.  Here's the link:  http://keepingitpersonal.com/2012/02/pray-for-kids/

I was telling y'all about my recent bombardment with this verse. I stumbled on it twice again this week. Once was in a friend's post that is at the Ronald McDonald house waiting for her baby to be born so that it can have heart surgery. Say a sweet prayer for them.  The second time was at the end of The Hiding Place. Betsie was thanking God for fleas because they kept the guards away and allowed her to share the gospel with fellow prisoners in the concentration camp.  Puts in in prospective, doesn't it. I bought this to support an adoption. I love mine. Check out the store.  http://www.storenvy.com/stores/68994-mercy-ink Y'all, She Reads Truth is an App! Get it. It's lovely. There are several short devotional studies on there.  I haven't actually used this yet, but the color is ministering to me. What do you like to make in your KitchenAid? My friend Amy sent me a link to this shirt and well, I bought it. I mean, it makes us sing. "She took the midnight tra...

I can still remember the first time I read The Hiding Place. It was twenty-three years ago. I have read more than a dozen of Corrie's books since. This one left an indelible impression on me that helped me see more clearly the tender love of Jesus. The raw honesty about her struggles and the simple trust in God that is displayed here is such a beacon to my soul. I don't know about you, but I wish the world could be full of Casper ten Booms. The patriarch of the ten Boom family was so full of a graciousness that I deeply long for. I long to see it in my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I'm sure that many of you have read this. I read it in school. I don't think it would be allowed in this day in age. It spoke in such a deep way to me because I often felt as though I were in an emotional prison growing up. I often prayed with the psalmist that God would set me free from my prison so that I could praise His name. He answered me. As I re-read it, I was struck many times of ...

Have you seen those blogs about people trying things they see on Pinterest and it turns out to be a big fat mess? A Pinterest fail. I thought there should be one about homeschool ideas.  I am often moved and motivated by Charlotte Mason. She was brilliant at teaching the individual and is greatly revered in the homeschool world. Her works on nature study are beautiful. I often find myself wondering what Charlotte Mason would do with my girls. She'd make peanut butter pinecones to attract birds and have them weave baskets from grasses they collected themselves.  I wax emotional about perfect homeschool stories and I let my girls bring in pinecones from outside. Of course they step in fire ants and break down weeping. Then the pine cones, once inside get broken into a million pieces that we get lodged in our feet. You have to laugh. We live real life.  What would Charlotte Mason do?

Did any of you participate in the seven days of prayer Anne Graham Lotz? I was struck by so many aspects of the daily prayers. It is completely and utterly nourishing to come clean and cry out to God for revival and healing. It felt good to cry out for our nation.  I have been going through Beth Moore's Children of the Day. Shortly after the Seven Days of Prayer wrapped up, I came to a portion in the study where Beth felt led to share a prayer for revival for our nation. The study is on 1 & 2 Thessalonians.  I had ordered a pendant to support adoption and hadn't really focused on what was on it. I look down at it last week as I realized that it was the exact scripture that I was studying. "Rejoice Always. Pray continually." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 (Pendant coming in future blog post) In the hospital waiting room yesterday, I began re-reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. There, in the forward, I read about some nuns in the sixties taking on the task of repe...

This book, y'all. It brought tears to my eyes. It was like a page out of the dichotomy of my childhood. I spent part of my life growing up in the official Norwegian Capitol of Texas. Even though childhood was difficult, I have these memories of being in this little community of settlers. My grandmother and her seven brothers still held fast to traditions, food, and the language. I can remember many a meal starting after a prayer in the native tongue of the motherland. They loved Jesus in this quiet ,simple way that left an indelible impression on my heart.  Reading this book took me back there.  The story is about an immigrant family and the struggles they went through in America. I identified personally with so much of it. Once the church her dad pastored voted him out for someone younger. As she told how this hurt their family, I felt her pain. Mostly, though, the book was about mama. You should read this and fall in love with her. I found myself wanting to be like her, to n...

Here is a compilation of the four reviews I posted about the inScribed collection.  #1 LIVING SO THAT Living So That is one of the four books in the new inScribed collection of studies by women. They are beautifully packaged and marketed. Looking at them, you want to pick them up and read them.  I attended a Bible study on Romans years ago. I had to take notes the entire time to stay focused because the teaching was dry. I stayed because the content was good. That is how I found this book to be. I had a hard time getting through it. The content was good for the most part, but the delivery could be dry, some what like a Sunday school lesson. It is a mass delivery of the facts. Of course, the Scripture in the pages is wonderful and beneficial. It was simply hard to stay to course with the delivery. There were other things in the book that turned me off to reading it. Some were quotes. One in particular was a chapter on that story about the two wolves fightin...

I have a tiny window when I can blog in the afternoon and I missed that on Thursday. We had to switch pools and wait for the waterpark to reopen because of AFR. That is an official Red Cross term for when a kid goes number two in the pool. I think I am going to send it to my husband every time my tub pooper decides to have an Accidental Fecal Release. Hashtag AFR. This has actually never happened here before. With thousands of kids, that's pretty amazing.  My man is currently driving home with Lulu to be there to lead our parish in worship in the morning. Yaya and Chacha are here with me in the lodge at Carolina Creek. Since the campers are going home today, the staff gets a special lunch of filet mignon. Bless the Lord.  I decided to stay here since I will be driving to Waco tomorrow to be with my step mom when she has some kidney stones removed. She is going to need several surgeries because she has many stones in both kidneys. One of them is a fourth the size of ...

Recently, I was preparing grilled cheese sandwiches for my girls, but didn't have enough cheese to make them for all of us. I decided to try the Prosciutto   Panino roll in the place of cheddar cheese. I added some sliced avocado and spicy red pepper hummus. Toasted in a pan like a regular grilled cheese. It's delicious, my people. I want you to share it with me. 

I decided to make some homemade garlic salt. I don't like the anti-caking agents and what have you. As I looked up the recipe on Pinterest, I found myself singing, "If you like it, put a pin on it." I may have lost my mind. I am here, mind or no mind, to tell you that the recipe worked. Oh, Lawdy. There is nothing like some fresh garlic salt because it makes amazing guacamole. AMAZING. Look, I even put it in a cute jar just like the picture.  The mixing bowl part of my food processor cracked and I had to buy a new one. That Target had a Tiffany Blue one there on sale for me. Swoon. The kitchen just stepped into a bit of color happiness. Here is the pin, friends: Try it. It works.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/168251736054135054/ If you like it, put a Pin on it.

You know those moments when things people say and do to you catch you completely off guard. You are in shock that anyone could even act that way to you. I have had a couple of these instances lately.  I am trying to respond with grace. Part of that is learning not to react to every injustice. Sometimes we are called to speak back with kindness.  It's no coincidence that I have been meditating on Titus 3:2.  "to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing humility to all men." The other day, I was drawing with sidewalk chalk with my girls. I wrote out the last part of the verse and my seven-year-old pointed out that I left the l out of humility. Ironic. Of course, I fixed it. I also had a good laugh at my own humanity. We are but dust. Here is another Bailey Jean for you:

I have come to the last book in the four part inScribed Collection. I have to admit that I saved this book for last because I thought it would be cheesy. Of course, when I saw the title, I thought of the old cult classic Dazed and Confused. I must subscribe to the old adage for this one.  Never judge a book by it's cover.  This was by far my favorite one of the four books. If the collection was a bar-be-cue, this book brought the meat. It delves into the biblical text of Habakkuk and tells it like it is. Sometimes, God brings the hammer. Sometimes, God brings change and answers prayers with immense pain. I was struck by how the prophets were very often met face to face with watching the things around them fall apart. I fell head over heels for Habakkuk. I loved him pursuing and loving his God. Pain and suffering are quite often the harbingers for God revealing His healing and glory. I highly recommend this book. I would definitely lend it to my bestie. Grab a co...

I was looking through Tim Challies weekend a la carte last weekend and was struck by this so that I did a screen shot. The reason it struck me is because it sounded very much like our society...even or Christian sub-culture. I just had the thought that "they" were trying to make us look like "them." Do you see it? Always moving, yet creating very little of worth. We never seem to be at peace because we are always fighting the sovereignty of God. We want very much to succeed...even in the church. We never stop to rest, rejoice, give thanks. I've been praying that we will look less and less like "them" and more and more like Christ Jesus. Pray with me, beloved and rest. Here is the article if you would like to read it: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/rayortlund/2014/06/26/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-demon/

It's the Fourth of July, friends. How on earth did it become July? I've not been able to get my bearings this week. It may be transitioning between groups at home and camp or sharing one room with my whole family. I had some ugly words thrown at me a few times this week that threw me off kilter. I'm trying to funnel it through the grace of scripture. I have decided to share with you some of my favorite things to spread some joy.  So, I never spend money. I went into Target one day with a few hundred dollars of birthday cash and came out with this cute little owl contact case. It was under three bucks, but it makes me happy every single day.  Perhaps you read my saga of weird gum disease after more than and handful of miscarriages...and that God provided thousands upon thousands of dollars in dental care for me. One thing that helped me heal was my Sonicare. I've had the original one for seven years. As I was researching toothbrushes to see what was out now, I came acros...

I recently read the third book in the inScribed collection entitled Leaving Ordinary. The book is about encountering God through extraordinary prayer. I enjoyed reading through the book. It was encouraging to be reminded about our need to call upon our Heavenly Father. I remember reading once that John Piper wrote that you read a book, not for the book, but for the sentences. There will be sentences that stick out to you personally that will speak to you. There are sentences like that is this book. The chapter I loved was about the atonement of Christ being sufficient. The quote that spoke to my heart was from a speaker named Betty Vick. "You never find, in all of Scripture, the priest examining the sinner [the Israelite] who brought the offering. The priest only examined the sacrifice to make sure that it was without blemish. Praise His holy name that is also true today."

Last week, the girls and I stayed home while Denbigh was leading worship at camp. We spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning and preparing for our guests. I even took the girls to Walmart by myself to get some things for our week. During our cleaning and preparing, we noticed a leak in the bathroom. Since my hubby wasn't home, our dear friend Lance came out and fixed it. He also did some reworking of pipe and installing hardware for us. The girls and I hung out in the bathroom and learned some plumbing. Thank you, Lance. You are our hero. Wednesday, our work group arrived from Trinity Lutheran in Clifton. You can click through all of the pictures and see what they accomplished. I so enjoy having our home and yard used as a place of worship. The only thing missing was Denbigh. Post by Gomer's House . As you can see, the girls (and guys) loved on our sweet girls. Lulu was even allowed to do some night jumping on the trampoline with the teenagers. She thoug...