Surrender

In the book "When God and Grief Meet", Lynn Ieb says that there is a difference in being resigned and being surrendered to Christian's death.

Being resigned means I don't have a choice.

Being surrendered is choosing to yield myself to whatever God's plan may be.

I surrender ALL!

All to thee my blessed Savior,

I surrender all.

"It is tomorrow that fills men with dread. God is there already. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass by Him before they can get to us."

-F.B. Meyer

You don't have to be resigned to your circumstances. You can choose to surrender your situation, fears, dreams, yesterdays and tomorrows to God!

Will you choose to surrender ALL?

the old man's club

Guess what David got in the mail today?

Bahahahahahaha! This is right up there with the Eisenhower moment.

He is so special, he gets gifts like that when it isn't even his birthday.

You are definitely a keeper, old man!!!

I wouldn't change a single thing about you. Especially your graying eyebrows and bald head.

I would even fight for you.

Those grannies and their wimpy canes don't stand a chance against my mad nunchuck skillz.

I Heart Faces: Hands-On Fun

The theme for this week's challenge at i heart faces is "Hands-On Fun."

While many of the participants have chosen to focus on hands, I am choosing to focus on FUN!!!

I'll never forget the laughter of this day when 6 little rascals put their grubby little hands on my horse and tried to run away with it!

They didn't get very far with all that excess baggage...

Yeeeeehawww!

{You can see more Hands-On Fun here.}

I ordered Kimchi online

After the dreaded conversion of my favorite Korean market to a Panaderia, it has come to this.

I ordered Kimchi through the internet. (Please don't disown me, mom!)

And it was good. REALLY GOOD.

I'm sure most of y'all are familiar with etsy by now. It is an online marketplace where you can buy all sorts of handmade items-- from fabrics to jewelry to artwork... it is all there.

But did you know that there is a FOOD equivalent to Etsy?! I bought this yummy Mother in Law's Kimchi from Foodzie.com.

Although the jars are small for the price that you would pay in a traditional market, it is worth it! It's at just the right stage of fermentation where you can it eat with rice or cook it in a stew. Since David and the boys won't go near the stuff, this should last me for a while. Besides, it would take me 1.5 hours roundtrip to drive to a store. If you figure in gas, traffic and time... this online kimchi will work out great for me, thankyouverymuch.

I am blown away by all the specialty items like local honeys and jams and even gluten free goods. The $7 flat rate shipping is a great deal for those purchasing heavier items.

Let me know if y'all try anything from Foodzie.com. I promise I'm not getting paid to promote them! I just get worked up when it comes to food, especially food that someone thinks is so good that they should try to sell it on their own.

It would be nice to see this site grow. I know people like my mexican casserole but I don't think there's a market for that.

Have any of y'all ever thought of selling food online? What would you sell?

Boy, I kinda sound like an infomercial. I was just excited to get kimchi delivered right to my door. Pretty cool for living in the boonies.

I'm going to go brush my teeth now.

God gives a song

Emily over at The Learning Never Stops wrote about something new she started doing in her homeschool-- teaching songs from the Bible. Out of all the songs I have ever taught my children, there is ONE that stands out more than any other.

In the early weeks after Christian's passing from this world, God taught me so much. For the first time in my life, I learned what it meant to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17) and the importance of turning my thoughts to those things that are true, noble, just, and of good report (Philippians 4:8).

But as time wore on, it became increasingly difficult to keep myself from sliding down into the dark depths of fear and self-pity and overwhelming sorrow.

I was SO weary.

Then God gave me a song, y'all!

It was this song from Nehemiah.

..for this day is holy unto our Lord: Neither be ye sorry;

for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

-Nehemiah 8:10 (emphasis mine)

I vaguely remember singing this catchy, repetetive song as a child.

So I ushered the kids to the piano, found the song and taught them the first verse...

"The joy of the Lord is my strength."

You pretty much just sing that line four times to a tune. It took a few tries before I could sing it without choking up. While other times I sang it without any strength and without any joy, just hoping that my heart would somehow follow the lead of my mouth.

Austin and Noah had no clue about my real intentions. They were just learning a song that they thought was easy and fun.

I was trusting God to bring that song to their lips and to my ears right when I needed it most.

It helped me more times than I can remember when they'd start singing it "out of the blue."

It is catchy like that and God is good like that! :)

In spite of being a slacker sometimes, I am thankful that God showed me the importance of being intentional. Intentional in parenting, intentional in our homeschool, and intentional in building up my spiritual arsenal. God gives us many tools and resources, we just have to USE them!

Has God ever used the seemingly smallest of things to make a difference in your heart or attitude? Has God ever brought a song to your lips or a verse to your mind that helped you when you least expected it?

I would love to hear your story.

I Heart Faces: I wanna dance!

The photo challenge at I Heart Faces this week is "I wanna dance!"

I love my sister Coco and my niece Emily-bemily! Emily had just received her first ballerina outfit and tiara and was dancing all around the backyard. :)

Scooping her up and twirling together was impossible to resist!

Serenade at a price

Last night I was serenaded by two guitar players.

I was minding my own business when Austin and Noah casually walked into my bedroom, guitars slung behind their backs. They unzipped their cases, took out their music and began to pick a few notes.

It made me smile to see my boys concentrating so hard on producing song from wood and wire.

Noah proudly showed me how he could play without looking at his music.

Did I mention that they have only had one guitar lesson so far? And the fact that they were using this "practice" time as a means of procrastination? Not to mention being completely out of tune with each other?

I'm cool with ALL of that.

However, I must admit that I was a bit taken aback at how expensive lessons are! Zoiks. $92 a month PER CHILD. (I feel like I should throw some more !!!!!!!! after that number.)

That gives them each one 30 minute lesson every week. While I thought it to be a worthy investment, it took a little convincing for David to jump on board.

Tell me, does your child take music lessons? What kind? Piano, guitar, cow bell...? Am I getting a good deal or getting ripped off with that price? Enquiring minds want to know-- I want to know!

My first Photowalk

This past weekend, I attended my very first Photowalk EVER. The walk was hosted by I Heart Faces and led by Michael Howard.

Am I the only one that is slightly intimidated by artsy people? And professional photographers? Zoiks.

(I am still kicking myself for not having a picture of Amy and Angie. If you thought they were funny, friendly and beautiful through the old internet, they are even more fabulous in person!)

Cameras in hand, we braved the freezing temps of Nashville.

I had my happy shoes on.

Ruthanne had a pleated poppy nestled in her gorgeous curls.

And Melissa was the only smart one of us to wear gloves. She is definitely the coolest person ever.

Literally.

Don't believe me? You can read about it over HERE.

We walked, we clicked...

...we laughed... (and not just at with Melissa, but Darcy and her Handyman and talented Hannah too!)...

...and then we jumped into the warm van and drove straight to Cracker Barrel!

The End.

If you are getting this in a reader, click through to see a slideshow of some of my favorite pics. You can see other IHF Photowalk photos at the flickr group HERE.

We Heart Kisses

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is "We Heart Kisses."

No matter how old we seem to get, this never gets old!

You can see more fun smoochie pics over HERE!

(Not to worry, they are non-david-and-i smoochie pics.)

Gift from South Africa

Look what these little birdies surprised us with all the way from South Africa!

Oh Fifi, if you only knew how crazy for World Cup Soccer we are!!! I so wish we could go (and make a pit stop at your house)!

The universal language of yum. CANDY.

THANK YOU, FIFI AND FAM!

pictures behind the picture

I don't have as many pictures of myself with Christian as I would like.

However, there is one picture that is a favorite of mine. You may have seen this as my avatar in various places.

That day is so clear in my mind. We were killing time in the parking lot of the athletic club where Austin and Noah were participating in a class for homeschoolers.

Christian and I sang songs, had a snack, and goofed around together-- just the two of us for an hour and a half!

Do you want to see a few more pictures from that day?

One-on-one time always brings out the best in their personalities!

Christian decided to plop himself in the back row where the big boys usually sat and said he was ready to go.

Ha! He knew the car doesn't start if you aren't in your carseat.

But he tried anyway. Always wondering how far that grin was going to get him...

What a great time we had that day! I don't know why I decided to bring my old Kodak along, but I'm sure glad I did. It's nice to have photographs to go along with a memory.

I take that back. I do know why I had my camera with me that day.

GOD KNEW.