Reformation Day!

For an explanation of the lyrics go here.

(HT -Between Two Worlds)

4 More Days

Leslie has been keeping her keyboard hot!

I won't even link one particular post, but rather her entire blog. Make a cup of coffee and plan on staying for a while. It's a political extravaganza, complete with videos, links, and a whole lot of the truth.

The complete and ugly truth.

And I agree with every single cotton-pickin' word.

Crafty

Look what the girls made with grid paper and markers, yesterday:


They saw this in a magazine and loved it!

It's the closest thing to cross-stitching I can do ;)

Exposing Words

"You always want a real baby that cries?"

Ann Voskamp, at Holy Experience, speaks the words that I have hidden in my heart.

7 Days Left

I am disappointed in the lack of conviction around this here bloggy world. I can find plenty of posts about cute shoes, great drapes, or even better casseroles.

But HELLO EVERYBODY! There is a rising up of people who believe counter to God's Word and what it has to say about His creation. There is a growing majority of individuals who believe that Barack Obama's plan for stealing "the redistribution of wealth" is a good idea.

I don't think things happen on accident because I serve a God who set forth plans ... plans that shall come to pass. Even something as seemingly insignificant as blogging can have purpose.

There is too much at stake to worry about whether or not a stranger might take offense in reading about abortion.

It's offensive. That is the point.

It's late and I am frustrated. I will share these excerpts with you from Randy Alcorn's blog:

Randy Alcorn responds to the question about why he doesn't care for the other needy and dying children, not just the unborn.

Here is his answer:

Actually, all the royalties from all of my books go to help the needy, including feeding and clothing and relieving the suffering of children all over the world. We give to prolife work, but far more to famine relief and development. By God’s grace, over four million dollars has been distributed for people-helping causes in the last number of years, much of it to children.

It’s curious that because I’m expressing concern about unborn children, people assume I don’t care about children who are already born. I do. But neither of the two major presidential candidates is advocating the legalized killing of already born children. However, one is advocating the legalized killing of unborn children. Since it is already illegal to kill the born, I’m talking about the rights and needs of the unborn.

I don't get the idea that it would be necessary to choose. It makes no sense.

I hate child abuse, cancer, cold weather, and horse radish.

All at the exact same time.

But if we were to govern one of those issues it would be child abuse. The government would never allow such a thing to be legal and even provide funding and assistance to those hoping to commit child abuse. We (Christians) would never align ourselves with a candidate who advocated such an act and I am certain that we would like to think that we could actually stand up and speak out and say the words, It. Is. Wrong.

Randy also addresses the Chuck Baldwin voters who are anti-McCain because of his position on stem-cell research and the exception for abortions in rape and incest cases. Here it is:

Suppose in the town you live in, there’s a lake where, for the last thirty-five years, children have been taken by parents to be drowned. Say that every day 100 children are brought to this lake.

As a town citizen, you are presented with two candidates for mayor. (You can vote for a third party, but clearly one of these two candidates will be elected.) One candidate publicly states that he believes the right thing is that the children not be brought to that lake. They should be allowed to live, except the one or two conceived by rape. By longstanding town law the 100 daily drownings are all legal, and the mayor can’t change the law. However, this mayoral candidate has publicly stated that the law should be changed, and he hopes to appoint judges who help that happen, so that 98 or 99 of the 100 children would live rather than die.

Now, the deaths of those one or two children conceived by rape should rightly disturb you. And if until now zero children had been killed at the lake, it would be evil to vote for a man willing for one or two to be legally drowned. But for thirty-five years, 100 children have been killed there each day. This man is trying to move the town in the right direction, even though he has stopped just short of a 100% reversal. No additional children will be killed if his position were in place, because those one or two children would have been killed anyway under existing law. But 98 or 99 a day would be rescued from the death they will face if his position isn’t put in place.

The other mayoral candidate believes that not one of those 100 children chosen for drowning by their parents should be rescued. He believes that the doctors holding them under the water should be allowed to do this. He is prochoice about the drowning of children. In the last twenty years there have been some limited prolife measures voted in by townspeople that have made it more difficult to drown children, saving some lives. But this candidate has promised to sign a bill that would remove all those restrictions. He would invalidate the requirement that doctors explain to parents what it means to drown a child. He would invalidate the law that requires grandparents to be notified if their children are going to drown their grandchildren.

In fact, this man has said of his own daughters, “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” He would support their right to hire a doctor to drown their babies, his grandchildren, in the lake. And he promises the town’s legal drowning organization, which makes considerable money by drowning children, that he will only appoint town judges who are in favor of the legalized-child-drowning laws.

Now here is our moral dilemma. Our next mayor will either be the 98%-don’t-drown-the-children candidate OR the 100%-drown-all-children-whose-parents-don’t-want-them candidate.

We could write in someone who has no chance of winning. It would be a protest vote, showing we don’t totally agree with either candidate. However, if others who believe all babies deserve to live do this same thing, the result will be that the 98% prolife candidate can’t win, and the 0% prolife candidate will be our mayor.

If you vote for the candidate in favor of saving 98 babies, it could be argued that you would be voting for the lesser of evils, since killing one or two children is evil. But after all these years of child-killing, you see the opportunity—if the 98% prolife mayor takes office and makes those prolife court appointments, countless future children’s lives could be saved. It’s not certain, but it’s a real possibility. And what is certain is this: if the candidate in favor of legalized child-killing wins the election, due to his agreement to remove any of the town’s existing child-killing restrictions, more children will die who wouldn’t have if the other candidate takes office.

What's The Deal?

What is Obama's birthplace?

And if there is nothing to hide, then why this?

(HT: Leslie at Lux Venit)

Letter P

While looking at the letter "P" words this week in My First Picture Dictionary, Samuel says ...

"I hate ponies. They're for girls."

-I will have to add this to the list that includes food you have to eat with a fork and anything with zippers.

One More Week

I am almost certain that the majority of people who read this blog will be voting next week for John McCain. I am also almost certain that the majority of people who read this blog are Christians and would consider themselves pro-life.

But just in case.

I will make this plea.

Please read Randy Alcorn's blog post, titled; "I'm not Voting for a Man; I am Voting for Generations of Children and their Right to Live".

If you are staunchly against abortion ... no matter what ... then it would not be necessary for you to watch the video at the end of that post.

However.

If you are somewhat undecided or take a position of relativism regarding the mother's health or some extenuating circumstance, then I believe it to be of utmost importance that you watch that footage.

If you think that your third-party vote will make a statement, I would say that statement is not near worth it's cost.

The footage on the video is beyond gruesome and horrific. It will make your heart race. It will make you physically ill. It will feel like you are seeing something that you should not.

Because you should not.

I made myself aware of this atrocious truth many years ago and as the images were seared into my mind they were also laid heavy on my heart.

We live in a society where we rely on images to convince us of truth.

William Wilberforce used imagery to expose the truth of slavery.



Remember Amilla Sonja Taylor? She just had her 2nd birthday. This image serves as a reminder that with God, all things are possible.

Our media loves to project images. Graphic war images of soldiers carrying small children, Darfur, Hurricane Katrina, PETA, etc.. It is with these images that we are made aware of certain "perceived" realities that we would otherwise be ignorant of.

Unfortunately, they are in control of these images and through their twisted filter we are unable to expose the horrible truth of abortion.

The video I mentioned states the following in the intro:

Here ends the apathy of ignorance.
Here begins the responsibility of knowledge.

Vote against this:

Benjamin

9 months already?

I love to see us...

I don't have very many pictures of me with my babies and the ones that I do have are so special to me. Hannah took this sequence at the orchard and I just loved it!

Carter Mountain

We went to Charlottesville on Wednesday with friends and visited Carter Mountain for apple picking. It was an absolutely perfect and crisp fall day.

A little too crisp at first, but as the day continued it warmed up nicely.

Our day included a wagon ride, apple donuts and cider, "Apple School", and apple picking.

The weather, the scenery and the baby with a delicious face made the perfect storm for a picture taking frenzy. I'll just say I took more than 200 and less than 10,000.

I'll be merciful and only post 2 dozen or so...

The Wagon/Tractor Ride

Me & Jenn

Sophia and her daughter Sabree

Kelly and her boys, Joshua & Caleb

Charlotte & Abbie

Samuel and the $18.00 pumpkins (um... no thanks)

Our Crew
(minus the babies being worn by their mommas)

Sam

Seviann, Abby, Emma & Hannah

My Boy...again

Hannah

Emma

Momma & Baby

Briley & Samuel

Apple School

Deep in the Golden Delicious Woods

Emmie & Jenn

Lunchtime!

Brothers

Prepare for the parade of yummy baby pictures

Dee-licious

Don't even get me started on that baby chicken fuzz.
I can't take it.

Almost a Christmas card.
Samuel and Briley had a meeting of the minds. Literally.
Samuel and his left eye were a little worse for the wear.

"The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Psalm 19:1

Shame

"You feel shame because you worship at the altar of your most important idol - self."


(HT - The Purple Cellar)

Before and After

Ya'll remember my red dining room? This is how our dining room looked until last fall. Then we invited strange men to come into our home and crank power tools all day and knock out walls and eavesdrop on my first year of homeschooling.... while pregnant.

Don't you know they left with some STORIES. TO. TELL.

Here is a during picture. This was not too long before Benjamin's arrival. I can tell you that my nervous system was in overdrive.

But if you have been pregnant, then you can just take a look at the photo and gather that.
This was sort of in-between. The rooms were finished but I was waiting for my wonderful table from Kelly. This table is only a couple feet long with the ends dropped and all the leaves removed. With all the leaves it is ginormous! It practically stretches across the entire room. We use it the way it is in the picture but it is nice to know we have seating when necessary.

I also was clinging desperately to this light fixture. I love it very much. It injured many a construction worker and it drew blood from my own scalp a time or two during the remodel phase...but I still loved it. I eventually caved and replaced it. (sniff)

Kelly took such good care of this beautiful antique table. I wonder what she will think when she comes over and sees the formula for a right solid carved into it?
Ta-Da!
Little Man's Office...
Some stuff to learn...
I love my pocket chart calendar! I am a furreal teacher ya'll! Those fall crafts on the bookcase are mostly from the girls. Because they went to the same preschool many moons ago they did the exact same crafts. I love those pilgrims. Samuel will have to make his set next month :)
Our nature wreaths. The bottom one is Samuel's. Notice the symmetry.

Son + Father = Same Person


I love our homeschool room! We have finally figured out how to store our books and our work. Last year was so trial and error and I was plum fed-up with the error part. I could still use more bookcases (who couldn't?) but for now it feels really good.

I plan on taking more pics of Benjamin's room because it is so sweet it'll make your teeth hurt. All the stress of construction was so worth it. I would do it all again!

You can re-visit the pictures from the remodel process by clicking on the "Addition" label below.

It's My Haircut And I'll Cry If I Want To

Age Five....When sitting still is actually painful.

Dear Kim in 1997

Dear Kim in 1997,

I know that little girl of yours is giving you a run for your money. I thought you could use a little encouragement....especially after that little episode in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

You know the one were you were about 41 weeks pregnant and your little sweetie threw herself a whopper of a fit?

When she laid down on the asphalt, "pancake style" and convinced her little body to stiffen to the point that no appendage could be lifted from the pavement? Not even when you started crying because you could not bend down to get her because YOUR BELLY was too big?

I feel ya sister.

Since I have a little bit better hindsight from my vantage point, I thought I might share how that willful head of curls serves her well in the future. It will bless your heart in so many ways to see God use that defiant heart to defy the world's standards for a girl her age. How that strong desire to have it her way is molded to a desire for His way and you will be so glad that she does not waiver.

She is coming up on her 14th birthday. She loves her siblings and interior design and Jesus. Have mercy, does she ever love Jesus.

Each week, she updates our dry erase board for homeschool, with scripture and encouraging words. (You might want to forget you read that part about homeschool....since I know where you are right now and that word is most certainly CRIPPLING YOU WITH FEAR.)

Here is her quote from John Piper's, "Don't Waste Your Life"...

Yes. Sometimes she is the teacher....and you are the student.

You just celebrated your 17th wedding anniversary with Chris, this past Saturday. While you were gone, that chubby-cheeked baby girl and the one that is growing in your tummy babysat your other two children. (Again, you may want to forget about reading this part to avoid more CRIPPLING FEAR.)

They made dinner, put the boys to bed and left the house spotless. While you were out on your date, Little Miss Hissy Fit sent this e-mail...

"I am sooo grateful to have such wonderful parents. Have a great time!
Love, Hannah & Emma"

And then you both began to cry.

Because you realize that the whole, "they grow up fast" has happened to you.

And the burden of that blessing is almost too much to bear.