Our Grand Dog

I imagine a lot of blog owners post pictures of their grandchildren. Since I don't have
grand kids yet I decided to post pictures of my "grand dog." And a grand dog he is~!

Bright has been a part of our family now for over four and a half years. He loves people. He always wants to be in the middle of whatever is going on. He celebrates all occasions with us. Christmas finds our red minivan full of our family and Bright as we drive around looking at Christmas lights. We took him with us the first Christmas he was ours. He sat in Bethany's lap. Now it is a tight squeeze but he has to go~!


A few weeks ago Sonic had free root beer floats. We were minus a couple of kids as they had
other plans. But we loaded up those who were home and Bright and went for free floats. He ate small bites from a plastic spoon. Bethany has taught him all manner of things. He really is an amazing dog.

We took him for obedience training when he was young. I watched as he dragged Bethany all over the fairgrounds. The next lesson he did much better. I guess he was excited to be out with all the other dogs and people and wide open spaces. Soon he was sitting for treats, and staying, and walking beside her. Proud "grandma" watched from the sidelines. It's amazing what he will do for a bite of string cheese.

We have a lot of people coming and going at our house. Our kids have lots of friends coming by and he gets really excited when the doorbell rings. He loves it and has made quite a few friends who always have to pay attention to him when they are over.

I never imagined I would be this crazy over a dog. After all he is just a dog. Although it is quite amazing to me how he knows what we say. If someone drops food in the kitchen we can call out "clean up on aisle three" and he comes running to clean it up~! He knows the words out and go and is always ready to run to the van and wait until someone opens the door so he can jump in. Of course the word bone has great meaning for him also.

Bethany can say just about anything to him and he understands.

I couldn't resist the picture of him wearing the
birthday hat. And I have one with him
in a tee shirt and......................

Stopping to Think

Did you ever stop to think about your life?

God could have let me be born anywhere in the world. For me He chose a small town in Texas with under 300 people. I lived in the same house all my life; no moving around for me. In fact, my mom has lived in that house since she was about eight years old. That means she's lived there almost 80 years~! Why that house? Why that town? Why that state? Why this country?

Psalm 139:15-16 says: "You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know
exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day." (The Message)

Isn't that incredible? How can I doubt that God
loves and cares for me?

This red step stool has been in my mom's house as long as I can remember. Each of my kids sat on it while eating at my parent's table. In fact,
they still do~! It's as much a part of the house as the house itself; at least in my eyes. And I think
my children would agree. There are so many
things that are the same when I go home. My parents provided stability and love for me and
my brother. They were always there for us. I think my mom is one reason I wanted to be home with my children. Even after I graduated
from high school and got a job I loved having her there when I came home. She worked hard and did so many things for us.

I may not have had an exciting life in that small town, but it was a good life. God made the best decision for me. After all He planned it all~!

The song I woke up with today is:
"I will make my plans Lord, but you direct my steps." I guess it goes along with this post quite well.

Apple, Coconut, or Pecan?

Summer has finally arrived at our house. We are finished with school and the kids are scattered. Bethany and Ben are in San Antonio visiting some dear friends. Rebekah and Donald are at work, Daniel and Hannah are sleeping. I have let Bright out and fed the cats and should be doing some things around the house. However I'd rather be blogging. I really do need a digital camera. I have never felt the need for one before I started my blog. We have lots of photos thanks to the kids and Donald. I will be doing something and think what I could write about if only I had a picture to go along with it. I think the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" perfectly describes my thoughts here.

We celebrated Father's Day yesterday with brisket, potato salad, baked beans, and three kinds of pie: pecan (Donald's request), coconut (for Rebekah) and apple (for whoever didn't want the other two). Ben if you read this they were really good; I'm sure there won't be any left by the time you get back from your trip~!

As you can see I really don't have any inspired thoughts at the moment. Not that I ever do, but one can hope. If we had an IHOP here I'd wake Daniel and get some breakfast. That kid loves IHOP. Right now it sounds pretty good. Maybe I'll go see if there's any pie left.

New and Improved

Cora sent an email that included this picture. It is pretty obvious if you come to my house that our computer isn't broken~!

Actually I've chilled out A LOT about...... oh, so many things. I used to stay uptight about the house and wanting it to be clean and perfect. No more. Several years ago God released me from my perfectionist nature and I'm enjoying life much more. I believe God wants us to be happy and enjoy Him and those he has put in our lives.

I do clean sometimes; I'm just not as uptight about when it gets done. In fact, I cleaned our bathroom last night. Every day this week I would say I was going to get to it that day.....maybe. Eventually it happened.

Several years ago I decided I could either home school or have a very clean house. But not both. Now the kids do help a lot, but they don't always do things exactly the way I would. Or sometimes even in my timing, unless I get nasty and insist it be done right then. But it really isn't that important to me any longer. Meet the new, improved me (at least in my own eyes).

Now that my bathroom is clean I'll have to decide on another project to get done sometime next week~!

Another Grace Like Rain Day

I can't get the phrase "Grace Like Rain" out of my mind. God is so terrific~! His grace is so awesome~!

So many things about God are so inconceivable to my mind. Just the thought that God IS and always WAS with no beginning and no end is so
impossible to comprehend.

I know I keep quoting things our pastor has said. It's because God's Words through him have changed my life. The whole grace concept has revolutionized my life. I love one of the definitions of that word......
3: to change fundamentally or completely In this case to revolutionize me~!

Okay, I got off on another train of thought there. I do that quite often, but back to the words our pastor said. I can't remember if he was quoting someone or if these are his words, but Donald wrote them down and I still have them in my Bible. "Grace is not something we opt into; it is something we have to opt out of!!! It is everywhere."

I have known about grace all my Christian life. It never seemed to reach further than being a word though. There is a big difference between knowing and KNOWING. I realize there is much more to grace than what I KNOW now.

That is one of the neat things about belonging to God. Just through the simple act of faith in believing in His son, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit belongs to us as well. We have access to Him at all times. We don't have to stagnate in our Christian lives. We can keep growing and learning and discarding some of the things we have believed, but find out later weren't quite right. I'm not sure I'm even making a lot of sense. There are so many thoughts swirling through my mind right now.

Enjoy God today. Revel (take intense pleasure or satisfaction) in His presence~!

Grace Like Rain

Thanks to my sweet daughter I now have a totally cool blog. If you haven't heard "Grace Like Rain" by Todd Agnew turn on your speakers. It is an incredible song.

Thanks, Hannh. You are awesome. I love you~!

Could this be me????

I just came inside from cleaning our fence. It has been over a month since I did that. There are creeping vines and vicious things with thorns all in the corner of our yard. They go wild in the springtime. They climb and coil and spread like wildfire. I have battled them each year for the past eleven years. They seem to be winning.

I would like to go to the chemical store and get some poison that would wipe it out. It would have to be safe for pets and be okay with my neighbors though. They have lots of it in their back yard. I'm not sure if they grow it or just don't battle it like I do. I am in a bad sort of mood since the last time I did it I got into poison ivy. I have never had poison ivy before and believe me I will be much more sympathetic the next time Ben gets it. A few years ago he had the series of shots to keep from getting it and he still got it. We have made several trips to the doctor when we couldn't get rid of it. Thankfully he handed me his prescription poison ivy cream which did the trick. So now I am wondering if I'll need to use it again.

I took precautions this time. I wore a long sleeved shirt and gloves and had everything covered except my face. I guess if I was a bee farmer I could have worn the big thing they wear to cover their faces. I probably would have looked pretty weird though. I think I found the creeping kind that is creeping from the fence row into our backyard. I got the bottle of poison ivy spray from the garage and doused them all. Then I came in and got into the shower immediately and scrubbed myself and washed my hair. I picked up the dirty clothes with a towel and carried them quickly put them into the washing machine with lots of soap. It wasn't a "I Love Lucy" move where the machine overflowed with suds, but it much more than I would have used under normal circumstances. Dire circumstances call for dire measures you know.

Now I am trying to decide what to do with the rest of my day. There is plenty I could do, but what do I want or need to do today? I guess I really need to finish grading a few chemistry questions so I'll be completely finished with school this year. I have books to try to sell and have to get my list ready for the curriculum I'll need for next semester. I also need to clean off the bookshelves as I do this each year after we finish school and get it ready for next year. I guess I just decided what I'll do. I'm sure it will be safer than my battle with the vines and poison ivy.