Rollin' Out

Summer fun with the girls! These pics are from a few weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to post them. The first is our girlfriends going to watch Cinderella at the local theatre. Brookie was the most excited and sat with eyes glued to the stage; Emmy was laughing hysterically the whole time 'cause she likes to make people laugh; Ellie was confused as to why the stepsisters were really boys dressed like girls; and Saedi & Meadow sat contently most of the time until the word "snacks" was mentioned. The performance was about 45 minutes and the girls did a nice job sitting through the princess production. It's activities like this that make me grateful to have only girlies :)Fun times!

And the following two pics were just too cute! Most nights we go on a wagon ride before bed and the usual treats eaten in the little red caboose are popsicles. Brooke and Meadow joined us for this routine one night and the girls had a blast...what a load they were to pull, though!

CopyCat

Lately, the girls have been playing together really well, and I'm noticing more and more how Saedi wants to be just like Big-Sis. For example, if Ellie's painting then Saedi wants the brushes. If Ellie twirls in circles yealling, "Mama Mama," then sure enough Saedi is right beside her. Even to my surprise, little Saedi climbed up the treehouse ladder & went down the slide (VERY fast) like she'd been doing it for years. And when she wiped out?...continued doing it over and over. Why not? Ellie's doing it. Ellie's enjoying her miniature clone, of course, but I'm wondering how much longer Ellie will enjoy all this copy-cat attention before she explodes on Saedi not giving her "enough space." (Hmmm...I wonder where El learned that phrase from).

On a different note, here's a fun cute happenings from our day today: El and I normally call Saedi, "Sissy" but today Saedi woke up from her nap first (very unusual) and immediately began asking for Sissy. So, all day Saedi refused to call her sister, Ellie but would only call her Sissy. I guess she wants to copy names, too!

We had a busy morning & I'm getting a nice break from the girls tomorrow, so I wanted to spend some quality time along with the girls tonight. We made bead neclaces (great garage sale find) and had a tea party with Daddy Doll. For our jewelry party El's attention spand lasted about 7 minutes, but Saedi had a blast dumping and picking up all the little beads. The tea party was much more up El's alley, and in fact, it's probably my favorite thing to play with El. Ellie served all of us, and Saedi made sure Daddy Doll came and got lots of hugs with his tea. El has become a pro at pouring and Saedi is drinking better and better from a cup. It was a fun day and it's days like these that remind me how blessed I am to be able to stay home with my girls, train them in the ways of the Lord, observe their explorations, & rejoice with them when they succeed at something new.

*Note on the Daddy Doll:
If you're not familiar with Daddy Dolls, check out www.daddydolls.com for more info. We bought the girls matching dolls a year ago when we knew Riley was going to start travelling more. Saedi was a newborn then so it's fun to see her loving on it now. Saedi takes her doll all around the house. It's a pretty creative idea, these Daddy Dolls,and I don't regret spending the money on them.

Silly Gourds

Last fall I bought green apple gourds at a local pumpkin patch to use for Fall decoration. When they began to lose their color and start rotting I threw them in the woods out back. Happily, I found them again this Spring. I soaked the gourds in bleach water, drilled a hole to empy the insides, and now the girls are painting them to make birdhouses. We'll see if birds ends up coming to nest in the gourds, but it's been a fun craft, nonetheless, and they fit the ambiance of our cottage yard.

The Poisonwood Bible

"I have pictured it many times-Hope!-wondering how I would catch such a thing one-handed, if it did come floating down to me from the sky. Now I find it has fallen already, and a piece of it is here beside our latrine, one red plume. In celebration I stooped down to pick it up." (p 185)
Recently, most of my free time as been going towards re-reading my favorite book, The Poisonwood Bible. I'm not the type that usually re-reads books (besides the Bible and cookbooks) because there's always new books I want to read. A few weeks ago, though, I was in a reading slump and trying to remember why I tagged The Poisonwood Bible as my favorite book. So...I got out the book and haven't been able to put it down. Why do I love this book? This book is a story of all things I'm most passionate about rolled up into one geniously written novel...God, missions, culture, injustice, women, love, history, economics, integrity, language, perseverance, etc.
For those of you who have read the book and are surprised that me, a Christian, would like this book so much let me just say a few things: I'm angered that the missionaries in this book gave God a bad rep which negatively effected a whole family & villages' view on Jesus. I think, however, that a lot of readers can relate to feeling those same negative feelings towards Jesus and Christians because of the harsh or boring or manipulative way Christ was explained to them. Everything within me wants to fix the mistakes of the father chracter and introduce the villagers to the Jesus that I know. I'd like to do the same for real people as well. I do believe there is a place for missionaries & I wish the book had a happier ending. But The Poisonwood Bible is a fascinating & realistic-feeling story that re-kindles the fire within me to make my life count by living a life that has been changed because of Jesus. It challenges me to think about what Christianity is all about. I'm not going to enter into any more details, but if you have ever been dying to strike up a conversation with me, read the book and I'd love to listen to your thoughts and share mine!

Hope

I've always been a person of hope & perseverence, believing in a future of greatness & continually striving towards dreams. I love those qualities about myself, and I have Jesus Christ to thank for His promise of giving me a hope and a future. A negative side to those attributes, however, is the temptation to leave today behind. Someday, I hope God will fulfill my dream to live with my family in another country, helping bring physical and spiritual relief to hurting people born into poverty. Until then, I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now, and yet I'm not doing much to make those dreams a reality. What am I doing in my everyday life to help Clarksville families find spiritual and physical hope in Jesus? What are the hopes and futures you cling to? Are you in a place of no hope? Perhaps you're in an opposite position of myself & only living in the today? Or are you like me and living mainly for the future? Wherever you are, I pray that the below will encourage you.
For the past several weeks thoughts like the above have been swirling around in my head & I haven't taken the time to record them...until now. Since the above revelation, I have been trying to take more time living in today's moments...starting my day reading the Bible & praying, not rushing Ellie out the door or picking Saedi up because she doesn't walk fast enough for me. I've been trying to enjoy relationships more and taking time out for people and the now moments of my life. These past few weeks with family allowed me mental reflecting time and the opportunity to make some changes in my everyday life...what I eat, how I spend my time,etc. The reflection, though, has also led to a desired change with my blogging. So, this is my first attempt to mesh the two: ordinary life and the eternal effect of lessons learned.

The other night I had a friend over for dinner but I was treated to serious conversations about our different spiritual beliefs. We talked a lot about faith and hope and what those ideas mean to us. As I talked with my friend I was reflecting on ideas I hadn't thought about in years. I realized I have an abnormal amount of faith and hope in my life...enough that I would base my worldview on those two concepts. My friend does not believe that anyone's eternal future should be based on faith, and, therefore, he doesn't value hope & faith like me. For me, though, I've experienced the reality of God at a young age. While I have always believed there existed a God and that Jesus was the son of God, I remember the moment I chose to live my life for God. I remember choosing to give up my habit of lying. And I remember the night I cried out to God and He spoke to me telling me everything would be alright. My friend has not had a God encounter like I have had, and while he desires an encounter with God, he's lost hope that that could happen for him. My encounter was real and I cling to the hope that God is who He says He is and that His promises are true. Hope is a wonderful, powerful thing. Hope is something that if you cling to it, it can't be taken from you. So, wherever you are in your personal journey of faith, hope, life, your future, don't back down until you get the answers you need to make hope a reality in your life.