Nature

As I said in a previous blog, we are trying to cultivate a garden this year. Daddy bought Samuel a starter set and then had to come to Calhoun to help us till the ground. I got a couple of pictures of Samuel playing in the freshly stirred dirt with a shovel. Emma decided that she would just play with the grass. Too cute for dirt right now I guess! Also, we got Samuel a bird house so that he can watch the birds eat. David was working on seminary stuff, so good 'ole Grandpa (or PaPa) helped him hang it. We have a couple of birds that do come to it already, which is exciting! It is amazing how close God is to us even through nature. I guess just another nugget of God's goodness that He allows us to share in with Him.








This is the birdhouse that Samuel picked out from Wal-Mart for us to hang in our backyard.

Having Fun

David has been out of town this weekend for school and my mama has Emma for the weekend, so Samuel and I are having one big party! We have planted our garden, which I have been told will probably be a mess if I don't work on spreading it out some more! We planted squash, cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, and flowers. Samuel also decided to walk around the house with winter wear on, so I had to take some pictures of him. The last picture is of Samuel enjoying a Little Debbie! Just one of the many things that we been doing during our 3 day party!







This is a picture that I took of Emma a few weeks ago in her halter outfit! She looks adorable in it. Enjoy the picture, because if her daddy has any say (which he has a lot of!), this may be the ONLY halter outfit that you will see her in! Samuel was helping me take a few pictures!

Flawless Perfection

I was cleaning up the house today (which is rare!), and I was praying while I was moving from room to room. For those of you who don't know, Jennifer's (my sister-in-law) really close friend passed away on Tuesday evening due to a terrible car accident. Christy was a beautiful, smart, friendly young woman who had just completed her master's degree. She was not in a relationship nor had any children, but was getting to know my cousin who lives in Las Vegas. She was very close to her family, especially her mother, and just an all around sweet person. She was the type of person that when they pass away, for a little while after, the world seems to be a little darker or colder. So as I was cleaning, my heart just seemed to break for this family and the people that knew her. I was asking the Lord to speak to me, because I so desperately need His help to make some sense of this situation. I did not feel my spirit move any real distance but deeper into the heart of God. It is times like these that we are inclined to be angry with God and to take away from the divinity of who He is. Why would a just God not have prevented the accident or keep her neck from snapping? The truth is that to save Christy from any real pain for the rest of her life, allowing her to complete her life earlier may have been justice. We will probably never know in this life time what the Lord accomplished for His sake, or how His heart was grieved at such an untimely death. For Christians, we have the hope of salvation and the knowledge that Christy is in a place of flawless perfection. It is so hard for us sometimes to see death as not the final end. So how do we find healing and peace for our aching hearts while here on Earth? We must dive into the Word and through prayer. It is in this time before the Lord that we realize that God is still in control and that only He can bring us to full restoration. Anger and bitterness, if allowed to fester in our hearts, will prevent the bridge to healing to take place. God is always there waiting for us, but because He gives us free will, we have to move towards Him. God full of perfect love and peace, who is light, can meet us in our darkness but we cannot remain dark. It is at a point of decision that we allow ourselves to have relationship with God. It is in times of people's deaths that our faith is made evident. Either we trust the goodness of God while knowing that the world we live in is broken, or we turn from the One who gives us the very breath that we take. The amazing thing about God is, He can handle our anger, and it is okay to hurt. However, we cannot allow that to push us from God and to keep from moving from glory to glory. We must pray as Paul did, that seeing only dimly through this world that the Lord would remove from his eyes the veils that keep Him from seeing as how God views the world. Christy's story wasn't over the second that she took her last breath. For she stood before the King of kings, and Jesus took her hand and said, "this one is with me." She is now in complete fullness, the way that we were intended to be. And now she only knows good and perfect peace, and is experiencing everlasting love. That is the story and legacy that she will carry, and for that I cannot be angry.

Intentional Family Time

In one of David's classes at Asbury this semester, he is required to set goals for the church, his coursework, and for his family. I was thrilled when he came up with one of his goals for the family being "intentional family time." It is so easy for us to get busy with the kids and typical day to day stuff without really spending time together. So on our first "intentional" outing, we decided to go to state Park near the Tennessee state line. They had a beautiful waterfall and a little playground. We took a picnic and ate outside. It was a little cooler than we anticipated, but that wasn't a problem. We had a very enjoyable day, and it was nice to all be together with no need to be anywhere but together. Thanks for a great day David!

Scary Baby

Emma has learned to make this weird raspy noise, and does it often since her discovery. For a couple of days she would start laughing and then turn it into a growl sound. Well I overheard her in the bed making the noise so I tried to catch it on camera. Sorry for the shakiness of the camera, I was really getting tickled at the noises she was making.