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I'm not sure of the blog etiquette on this one but I really want to link to this blog.

Enjoying the Small Things

Kelle's photography is beautiful. Her blogs make me laugh and make me cry. And, though it usually annoys me when blogs have background music because I have to figure out to turn the nasty sound off, sometimes I just leave her blog up to listen to her playlist. Good taste.

Hey, Mr. Arnstein...

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Mama Donna suggested I "pack up that baby and get out of the house." She mentioned she was going to the Farmer's Market. I thought that was a good idea.

 

And it was. The weather was beautiful. The smell of fresh fruit so filled the air that I could taste it. I left with my spirit lifted and humming one of the best mood boosting songs of all time:

"Oh, life is juicy, juicy and you see,
I gotta have my bite, sir."

I also left with a baby that looked like this:

That was good, too.

Open Book

My first Bible was the "New Adventure Bible." It was purple and shiny, literally. It had that cool holographic cover. There were colorful charts throughout, interesting facts written at the bottom of each page, and beautiful maps in the back. I carried it around a lot. I got a cloth cover for it. I carefully put those sticky tabs on the pages so I could find books easily, or, in other words, cheat during Bible drills. And it annoyed me that there was one tab that hadn't gone on perfectly straight. While it had a couple of dings on the cover and a bend corner or two, I tried to keep it in near perfect condition. although I read it, studied with it, and carried it around a lot, if anyone looked into it, there would be no clues of what it meant to me. I had a lot of "Bible Accessories" but no underlines, no highlights, no notes, no important papers tucked between the pages. That Bible still had all the truth of God's word on it's pages, but no evidence of how that Truth had impacted the reader.

I had a couple other Bibles before I got the one I have now. But I got this one a little before I graduated High School. It wasn't a student Bible, it was a "Grown Up" Bible. See, since that first one, I had become an "expert" at studying the Bible. I didn't need the colorful charts and interesting facts anymore. It was pretty though, as close to purple as I could find. The gold edges were shiny and smooth. the first page with the "This Bible is presented to" form is still blank. since I bought it for myself, filling that out would have been weird. My intellectual understanding of the Bible was my crutch by then. I got an ego boost every time my Bible teacher complimented my insight. The Truth was still written on those pages and I had ditched the "Bible Accessories" but my application of the Truth was still superficial. Obviously, I needed an attitude adjustment.

A lot of things have happened in my life in the years since I've had the Bible. Every moment of the past seven years has been jammed packed with significance. Some of the events were tragic, attacks straight from the enemy. Some of the events, sometimes the ones that hurt me the most, ended up being like invasive surgery that God performed to cut out the tumors and heal some wounds. And some of the events were pure glimpses of Heaven.

This Bible had evidence of that. The binding is coming off, the leather is flaking, the gold edges have nearly all dulled. The book of Romans is hanging y a thread with the passage on spiritual gifts so written around that I can barely make out the print.

Turn to Psalms and you'll see where I had to highlight every mention of God as the source of security and strength.

"The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; and those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You of Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." Psalm 9:9-10

Tucked in next to Isaiah 61:3 is a newspaper clipping of my friend's obituary.

"To grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting so they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

And Jeremiah 17:7-8 is underlined and circled in black.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is in the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit."

God has a message, a calling, a purpose, a mission, whatever you want to call it, written on all of our hearts. And as we carry that message through our lives one of two things can happen. The inevitable wear and tear can ding our covers and bend our edges but leave core untouched. Or we can let it sink in and underline that message, highlight that truth, give flesh to the purpose. Our responsibility is not to cover ourselves up and put on "Bible Accessories." But to live the Truth, through and through. So that it is completely obvious to anyone who peers at our heart what the message is and Who is writing it. I'm not an expert at this. There are things in my life that I'm still trying to sort into what I believe God has purposed me to be, but my life is an open book.

Go Take a Hike!

In an effort to turn our lazy bums into less saggy ones, we're trying to increase the activity level around here. Plus, hiking is fun! Here's the pics.

Amish Bread and My Hell's Kitchen

Our "sweet" friends David and Shari gave the gift of an Amish "Friendship" Bread Starter. I wasn't sure how I excited I was about baking bread every 10 days but Peter seemed stoked and the sample they brought tasted awesome. So, I thought I could try it at least once. Here's what the first couple loaves looked like:



The gaping scars are where I cut off the rock hard charcoal crust.

You see, my oven is heated by the fires of Hell. If a recipe says, "Preheat to 350", I preheat to 250. If it says, "Bake for 30 minutes" I always check it at 15 and open the front door so the plume of smoke can escape before it sets off the detector.

Did I give up on the bread? No, 10 days later, I try again. The first 2 loaves are again only edible if you peel off what I like to refer to as the protective shell. The third looks better from the top but I still can't get it out of the pan.

And then I made muffins and they turned out pretty good! A little brown on the bottom but no basalt like coating!



After all that, there was still a small amount of batter in the bottom of the bowl. So, even though I had ALL THIS BREAD in my kitchen, I threw that little bit in the oven, too. I got the cutest little loaf of bread. Soft crust and everything! Here's what that looked like:



Am I going to keep this up? Am I going to let the oven with Gordon Ramsay aspirations beat me? Am I going to spend a whole afternoon on a regular baking bread? I don't know, we'll see how I feel in another 10 days.

One month old mommy

Things I heard coming out of my mouth this morning:



How did you get poop there?!



Yay! We got the boogie out!



Ok, I guess we HAVE to take a bath now.



I love you!

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes ; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit." Jeremiah 17:7

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” George Bernard Shaw