House

We won the bid on a house that we wanted, so it's actually ours now!

Isn't it pretty? : ) I'm hoping to post before and after pictures as we fix up each room.

Some color ideas so far...

It's going to be so fun!

My sister comes over early in the morning, right after my husband leaves for work, and we start warming up to a workout video.

"I'm bummed today," I bring it up, hoping, maybe...someone outside my head can offer perspective.

side, two, three, four...two jumping jacks...back, two, three, four...



She listens and I talk, and she talks and I listen ...



step, heel, step, pull ...




We talk about God and trials and how he works in our lives and what the Bible says about peace.



I believe the verses about trust and peace are true. But the process of learning to rest can be excrutiating, because it doesn't happen all at once.


But the conversation was encouraging.

To speak out loud, hear the words, helps focus my thoughts away from anxiety.

David talked to himself too. "Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence." Ps. 42:5

The other day, we had people over, maybe two nights in a row. Somehow the house became overturned, so I took a few pictures, because it was worse than usual. I keep reading that your home should be a haven, so it makes me nervous when it gets to looking like this. : ) In our small space, clutter accumulates quickly.

Even de-cluttered, it's still a little mismatched and plain. Although I'm perfectly content with our little place, also looking forward to future kitchens, bedrooms, etc. to play with someday.


Kitchen...







And I love this kitchen.

Living Room...










Bedroom...

One Year

Our first anniversary is coming up soon! We will still be traveling with Evidence that weekend, but so glad we got to take a little vacation in June!

This was the view out our second story room window in the seaside inn where we stayed.



Beautiful sunsets!!!



We spent a couple days on the beach and got overly sunburned, but it was great. : )



All the learning of this year is a combination of deepening friendship and bliss and growing pains, sometimes baffling and sometimes exhilarating when God gives grace for new understanding of each other.

Thank you, Lord.

How is it Between Us

I feel unsettled. A restless and heavy spirit. Maybe it's because I never settled into my circumstances in the Spring, not aware of God, not thankful. I wonder if the Fall will be the same, and I swallow hard. Something must be wrong, for me to feel this sense of panic for so long, undealt with.

I'm resenting the things that pull me away from the discoveries of homemaking, wishing my other responsibilities drew me as much as taking care of my husband does. I need balance.

Trying to control it all, failing to stop and listen and be quiet. I long to experience God's sustaining, but it's hard to stop looking around at everything else.

I read the Words, but I wish they impacted my heart more.

Praying that they will take hold of my spirit as I take time to quiet my heart and meditate on God's words, home alone on these long summer days. Starting today...

Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

Marriage

I love being married. It's wonderful to grow and live life with someone you love. There is familiarity and comfort, knowing the two of us are working on life together. Marriage has been surprising to me. I didn't expect the huge gaps in communication that happen from time to time. Despite our completely different personalities, both of us are fairly easy-going. I guess I assumed we would never totally misunderstand each other! But it's so sweet to get to the place where those misunderstandings are bridged.

I'm also surprised as I watch us grow closer and love deeper even in such a short amount of time. I can't wait to see what God does in our life together as time goes on!

I love being married to this man and seeing God stretch us individually and together.

A couple months after we started dating...



Our wedding eight months after we started dating...


Honeymoon to Colorado...


In Mexico during our first Christmas!


I'm so grateful for this season of life!

Hold My Hand

The steps of a man are established by the LORD,
And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

The Beauty of Seeing Things Through

I posted song lyrics in January, so it's about time for more!
Sara Groves' is one of my favorite songwriters.

Loving a person just the way they are, it's no small thing
It takes some time to see things through
Sometimes things change, sometimes we're waiting
We need grace either way

Hold on to me
I'll hold on to you
Let's find out the beauty of seeing things through

There's a lot
of pain in reaching out and trying
It's a vulnerable place to be
Love and pride can't occupy the same spaces baby
Only one makes you free

....

If we go looking for offense
We're going to find it
If we go looking for real love
We're going to find it

A Blogging Moment....

...as I must quietly oversee my current visitor as they work.

My eyelashes are twitching from lack of sleep.

My stomach is growling because all I had for breakfast was two donut holes and coffee.

My head feels a little fuzzy from insufficient sleep and food.

I'm weary from carrying a squirmy kid down the hall and from lack of sleep and food.

But I do love my job.

And I believe the children are our future.........(smirk)

While that thought may be true, the song still makes me giggle. In all it's sincerity and 80's-ish-ness.

For His Name's Sake

Doubt - it causes me to fear that God will not come through on His promises to keep changing me on the inside and directing my steps and decisions. I'm often stuck there for longer than I should be.

His Word would beg to differ, and with good reason...

Psalm 23:3
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.

Psalm 31:3
For You are my rock and my fortress;
For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me.

Psalm 79:9
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;
And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name's sake.

Ezekiel 20:44
Then you will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name's sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.

1 John 2:12
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake.

"You Rise and Meet the Day"

Love songs!...Whatever my stage in life, as sappy or ambiguous as they can be sometimes, they're the kind of song that doesn't leave my head for a while. I started listening to this artist a couple months ago, and particularly liked her lyrics on this song and a few others. I'm writing some of it down, just because it's what happens to be stuck in my head today, and if I ramble about song lyrics on a blog, no one has to listen to me if they don't want to. : )

[...]

I'm watching you go, it's like spying on hope
Ever onward with more to burn
Giving your hands and your heart
To the weave of the world, though it fights each turn

But you do not give up so easily
That's how I know you won't surrender me
You rise and meet the day
It's all I need to know.

[...]

And they will know the true and humble power
Of love that made it through the darkest hour
You rise and meet the day
It's all I need to know

---Dar Williams

Words...

that I have inadvertently learned while sitting/reading at my computer/internet all week supervising in-school suspension.

Synergy - The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

I'm thinking this could be the start of a useful pick-up line for guys. "Hey, I think there's some great synergy between us making us more useful for God together than apart!"

Lapidary - Characterized by an exactitude and extreme refinement that suggests gem cutting: a lapidary style; lapidary verse.

"Ya know, I'm mesmerized by your lapidary wit!"

I apologize if you didn't catch on to the lame sarcasm of my thoughts! On the other hand I really did see these words in articles and look up the definitions in the dictionary and thesaurus, purely for enjoyment's sake, because I'm a nerd like that.

Ah, the Sense of Anticipation

This is How I Feel Today

Every good gift is from above...

Anticipation and a spring in my step in honor of Friday...warm fuzzy feelings...beautiful weather...any friends want a hug?!?!

Surely Goodness

Psalm 31:19-24

How great is Your goodness,
Which You have stored up for those who fear You,
Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You,
Before the sons of men!

You hide them in the secret place of Your presence
from the conspiracies of man;
You keep them secretly in a shelter
from the strife of tongues.

Blessed be the LORD,
For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.

As for me, I said in my alarm,
"I am cut off from before Your eyes";
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
when I cried to You.

O love the LORD, all you His godly ones!
The LORD preserves the faithful
And fully recompenses the proud doer.

Be strong and let your heart take courage,
All you who hope in the LORD.

Stereotypes

...may be something we bring on ourselves, but...

While browsing some Christian blogs the other day, I randomly came across this book, Incompatibility: Grounds for a Great Marriage. Although I assume the material is helpful for adjusting to life with someone of the opposite gender, my concern lies with the cover photo! Who are we being forced to conclude is represented by the ostrich on the left? ; ) Actually I think it's quite funny and sometimes true...

The Clothes Pin

How much better it is
to carry wood to the fire
than to moan about your life.
How much better
to throw the garbage
onto the compost, or to pin the clean
sheet on the line
with a gray-brown wooden clothes pin!

Poet Jane Kenyon

Scaredy Squirrel

Scaredy Squirrel is very comfortable with his daily routine. His long list of fears keep him from leaving his tree, until the day he makes a flying leap into the unknown in an effort to recover his emergency kit, which fell into the bushes. From then on he includes one exhilarating leap into the unknown in his routine every day, along with eating, sleeping and playing dead.

I had to smile when I read this book and thought of how much I resist making changes in my daily patterns and routines. Here's to exercising faith in God's character every day, taking a "leap into the unknowns" of life. : )

Solid Rock

A few days ago I started a new (to me) book, called Second Guessing God: Hanging on When You Can't See His Plan by Brian Jones (a pastor in PA). I've only finished chapter one, but the principles are very solid so far and quite timely for my heart, for this semester in my life. He doesn't write so much as a theologian, but rather as a mentor who has seen his faith renewed through Scripture and his relationship with God.

I love the following words from Jones' professor who encouraged him in his struggle. During his senior year of seminary, Jones had all but given up on his faith and trust in God.

"...I have stood where you're standing. I've felt the water cascade across my feet. I know how wonderful that feels. But I've also had the water go back out to sea. I've felt the sand get washed out from underneath my feet...when the last grain of sand is finally gone, you're going to discover that you're standing on a rock."

Hebrews 6:17-20

"Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

Matthew Henry comments on this passage:

"The consolations of God are strong enough to support his people under their strongest trials. The comforts of this world are too weak to bear up the soul under temptation, persecution, and death; but the consolations of the Lord are neither few nor small...it is an anchor that is cast upon the rock, the Rock of ages. It does not seek to fasten in the sands, but enters within the veil, and fixes there upon Christ; he is the object, he is the anchor-hold of the believer's hope."

From Protest to Praise

When I can't feel you I have learned to reach out just the same
When I can't hear you, I know you still hear every word I pray
And I want you more than I want to live another day
And as I wait for you maybe I'm made more faithful (Brooke Fraser)



And when you feel alone like I know you will,
And when the cold wind blows like I know it will,
Don't let your love grow cold. (Sara Groves)

Whatever you're doing inside of me.
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
But I'm giving in to something heavenly. (Sanctus Real)

I will cry out until I go
from protest to praise.
You're always amazing me.
You're changing me slow, but surely
and you're gonna see me to the end. (Downhere)

Something so amazing in a heart so dark and dim
When a wall falls down and the light comes in
And I cannot make it
And I cannot fake it
And I can't afford it
But it's mine (Sara Groves)