Month: August 2008

  • Arise, My Soul, Arise

    Our Sunday was wonderful.  We had a great day at church, fellowshipping and learning more about our Savior.  We’ve been studying through the book Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament in our adult Sunday School class.  I highly recommend it.  I often find some of the Old Testament hard to wade through.  But this book points everything back to Christ; how to find the symbols and types that point to our Savior.  It has been quite eye-opening.

    Today we were looking specifically at the Tabernacle.  We talked about how the sacrifices were made, the sprinkling of blood to quench God’s wrath over our sin.  We also talked about the High Priest going in to the Holy of Holies once a year to mediate with God on Israel’s behalf.  I am so thankful that we no longer need a mediator.  What a privilege we have that we can go directly before the throne of God, casting our burdens upon Him.


    For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
    himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.  I Timothy 2:5,6

    Tonight we sang the song “Arise, My Soul, Arise” by Charles Wesley.  The words fit so well with what we had been talking about that morning.  I love those great hymns of the faith.

    “Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;

    The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:

    Before the throne my surety stands,
    Before the throne my surety stands,
    My name is written on His hands.

    He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
    His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
    His blood atoned for all our race,

    His blood atoned for all our race,


    And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

    Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
    They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
    “Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
    “Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
    “Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

    The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
    He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
    His Spirit answers to the blood,
    His Spirit answers to the blood,
    And tells me I am born of God.

    My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
    He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
    With confidence I now draw nigh,

    With confidence I now draw nigh,


    And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

    “I have a record,” said a Wesleyan mis­sion­ary la­bor­ing in the West
    Indies, “of two hun­dred persons, young and old, who re­ceived the most
    di­rect ev­i­dence of the forgive­ness of their sins while sing­ing
    ‘Arise, my soul.’ The con­ver­sion of the great­er num­ber of these
    per­sons took place while I was a mis­sion­ary abroad.” (from My Life and the Story of Gospel Hymns by Ira Sankey)

    Tonight the kids sang some songs about missions that they had learned in the summer Wednesday night program.  It was so cute.  Ainsley is such a little ham.  I love seeing her up there singing her heart out for the Lord. 

    We also had a meeting today with all the parents of kids who are 3 years old to 6th grade.  Josh and I are taking over the school-year Wednesday night program we have at church.  We are looking forward to what God has in store for the kids and for us through that.

  • First Day of School


    Ainsley had a wonderful first day of school.


    She just kept saying, “I’m sooooo excited!”


    I had to make her say goodbye to me.  She did not care one bit that I was leaving her.
    Ok, so I did cry a little as I said goodbye, but I didn’t want her think I was sad, so I pretty much ran out of the room, dragging Lorelei behind me, only to have to come back because I failed to sign her in.  The teacher knew I was trying to make a quick exit, but stopped to hug me and say that it would be ok.   I was ok, but I cried the whole way home (which, in my defense, is a very short drive. )



    While Ainsley was away, Lorelei and I played, took a walk to the library and apparently got kisses from Wrigley.  She did miss her sister, though.  She kept saying, “Where’s Ainsley?”


    The first thing Ainsley said when I picked her up was (in very loud, excited voice) “Mom, I was really good.  I LOVE school!”  Ok, no more tears from me.  We made the right choice.  The girls were so excited to see each other they couldn’t wait to hold hands to walk back out to the car.


    I asked her on the way to the car if she missed me.  “No, I only missed Lamby.”  Well, that will make it easier to drop her off tomorrow.
  • Beach Day

    We haven’t been to the beach all summer, so we took Saturday and spent the day in the sun and sand.

    Lorelei got knocked over by a wave just moments after we got there.  That was the end of her day in the water.  She stayed safely away from the water and played in the sand the rest of the time.

    Enjoying lunch on the beach.

    Ainsley loved trying to out-run the waves.


    Ainsley starts school tomorrow!  She’s so excited she can barely contain herself.  We go to orientation tonight.   I think I’ll be ok taking her to school tomorrow, but we shall see.  I’m sure I’ll have first day of school pictures up tomorrow or Wednesday.  Stay tuned.
  • Michael Phelps Watch Out!

    Here comes your competition!

  • Gone Fishin’


    Ainsley has been begging to go fishing.  We have a little pond down the street at the park that is stocked with little fish just so kids can have their first fishing lessons, but there just hasn’t been time… until this past Saturday.

    Josh got her little fishing pole all set up, only to have it break on the first cast.  So, then she had to try to use daddy’s pole, which worked… with help from daddy.

    Josh was sure she was going to hate it and be bored to death, but she loved it.


    It helped that they caught FOUR fish.

    Also on Saturday we bought four new doors to replace all the sliding glass doors on our porch.  The fifth door will be replaced with a gas fireplace insert and some shelving.  I can’t wait to get them all in.  It is going to look so much nicer out there.  It’s going to be a lot of work, though.  We have to fill in some cement under the doors and it’s not easy to do.  Why can’t any house project turn out easier than first envisioned????

    After Josh got home today we took to the sidewalks to create some artwork.


    Notice the choo-choo in her hand.  It’s her new best friend.  She even wanted to sleep with it tonight.


    Most of the artwork was Josh’s.  I can’t draw… at all.


    Lorelei stole all the chalk and took it to the front stoop.  Doesn’t she look grown up????  She’ll be two in just over a month!  Where has the time gone…

  • Weekly Update

    I guess that’s about as often as I’ve been blogging lately.  Nothing exciting has been happening, but everything exciting has been happening.  You know, the exciting things that make up every day… cuddling with my girls, taking walks to the park, bike rides to the library, kicking the soccer ball in the backyard, visiting friends, going to church, making forts in the living room, singing songs and just having fun.

    I am having fun being my girls’ mom.  What a great gift God has given me… and great responsibility, too.  Ainsley has been asking some pretty deep (in 4-year-old terms) theological questions.  It’s nice to see that she’s thinking about spiritual things, but it also makes me so nervous to answer them.  How do I explain things on a 4-year-old level?  What if I blow it and totally ruin her spiritual life?   How silly I am!  I think I give myself too much credit.  God is working on her heart, I just need to pray for wisdom and for the Holy Spirit to give me the words to say.  God will take care of the rest.

    Josh and I had a nice time on our anniversary date last week.  We didn’t do much, but it was relaxing and nice to have a night without the kids.  Golfing last Saturday went really well.  Us ladies did much better than I had expected.  I even won the longest drive competition for the ladies.  However, I injured my thumb.  I am finally going to go to the doctor about it tomorrow.  My thumb bent back on my backswing and I heard a crack.  Since then, it has been swollen and it HURTS.  I can’t use it very well.  It’s my left thumb, so at least it’s not my right, but it’s still hard to do quite a few things without its use.   I had to play the piano on Sunday and yesterday at church… and let me tell you, I was suffering for Jesus. LOL!  It wasn’t that bad, but it didn’t feel too great.  So pray it heals… quickly.

    Other than that, we are enjoying some cooler late summer weather.  And I am fighting a cold coming on.  These late night watching the Olympics are killing me, but I can’t help it.  I have to watch!

  • Celebrating 9 years

    Today is our 9th wedding anniversary.  I can’t believe we’ve been married that long already, and I also can’t believe it hasn’t been 99 years.  Not in a bad way, but it seems like we’ve been together a very long time.  Sometimes I can’t remember what it was like to not be married.

    We were married young.  I was just 20, he was just days from turning 22.  Neither one of us knew exactly what we were getting into.  Who does?  But over the years we have learned to weather the good and the bad together.  And God has protected our marriage through it all.  I am very thankful for my husband and our wonderful family.

    We will have a low-key day today.  We plan to put the kids to bed early and have some take-out by ourselves.  Tomorrow night my mother-in-law has agreed to take the kids overnight.  We don’t have any concrete plans, but we’ll be by ourselves… and that’s all that matters.  We won’t get to sleep in, though.  We’re going to the church golf tournament early Saturday morning.  I’m playing with a ladies team.  Only one of us knows what she is doing, and it’s not me.  I’ve golfed a few times, but it’s been a really long time… and I’ve only been on smaller par 3 courses, so this will be something to behold, I’m sure.   The driving range has been my friend lately…

  • Still Recovering

    I feel as if I am still recovering from our crazy-busy month of July.  There was literally not one day on the calendar that didn’t have something on it for us to do.  Now that it is August, life has slowed down and we are enjoying some truly lazy summer days. 

    I haven’t been able to get back into blogging much since our vacation.  And with last week being Bible School, I was pure worn out.

    Bible School this year was called Faith Expedition.  It was probably the best VBS we’ve had at this church (as long as we’ve been there, which has only been 5 years.)  I taught the 4th graders, which ended up being a very small class all week long.  It was nice though; I had a lot of one-on-one interaction with the children I did have.  The curriculum focused on six faithful men in both the old and new testaments.  It was interesting, and well done.  I am very thankful God gave us a good week.  We had awesome weather all week, and the kids behaved wonderfully, including my own.  I was worried a bit.  We were coming off a very busy vacation, and then had night-time VBS, which had them in bed after 9 each night.  But God is good, and we made it through.

    Ainsley goes to school exactly three weeks from today.  Can you believe that?  It’s already back to school time!  I have her first semester completely paid for even though I barely wrote anything all of July with us being so busy.  I am so thankful that God kept me so busy with articles at the beginning of the summer.  We got her school list a few days ago, along with the name of her teacher. 

    So, now I am just trying to enjoy the end of our summer with my girls.  We’ve been having relaxing days this week, staying home and playing, walking to the park and library…. just simple things. 

    At the end of this week, Josh and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary and I’ll be playing in a golf tournament.   More on that later…
    Now that’s a tease, isn’t it?