Fourfold Inspiration

This morning I came across this Fourfold Franciscan Blessing .


It was such a life giving call to action that I thought I'd share it with you :)

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deeply within your heart.

May God bless you with a holy anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what  others claim cannot be done.

Do you feel recharged?  Ready for Battle?

With all the turmoil of national debt and will so and so get paid or cut or whatever, imagine what would happen if we, the body, took a stand.....nuts to a balanced budget or higher debt ceiling....if we were actually doing what we have been instructed to do, none of this would matter---taking care of our aged parents, poor, widows, and orphans.   

What if we, the church, made such a radical impact on society that people turned first to The Cross and then to the government?

We need to bust out of our Holy Huddles and love on people with all the love of Christ!!!!!

ok...enough soapboxing....May God bless you with eyes that see, ears that hear, and a heart that loves those who He Loves!

Wise Counsel

Wow, I'm so enthralled with the O.T. right now!

Who knew that some of this stuff could be So Interesting!?!?

I flew through 1st and 2nd Samuel and am now over halfway through 1st Kings.

Did you know that David's son Absalom was the first baby kissing, handshaking, mumbo jumbo talkin' politician? Yep, he sat at the town gate, shaking hands, kissing cheeks and promoting his cause trying to overthrow his dad.

David had a serious problem keeping his kids under control. In fact, pretty much all of the major guys in the Old Test. had family issues. Why is that? Makes you really think about how sometimes we loose focus on what really matters even though we are doing something good....like running a country...

When it comes to advice, time and time again, wise counsel is so Important!

David's son Absalom had the rebellion in the bag...until, he followed the advice of someone secretly loyal to David. His plan to attack David played on Absalom's pride and led to his defeat and death.

Solomon, the wisest man on earth (and whoa, did he seriously fall or what?!?), obviously didn't pass any of it down to his kids. Maybe he was too busy entertaining people from all over the world who came to just sit and listen to him... His son, Rahoboam, completely ignored the advice of his father's elders when it came to dealing with his new kingdom.

The good advice was to serve his people and they will serve him. Humble, serving...not really the awesome lifestyle of a King.

His friends told him to flex his muscle, show them who's boss---if you thought my father's yoke was heavy, mine will be even heavier still! And the people rebelled, and he lost most of his kingdom (Israel split from Judah)....just as God told Solomon would happen because of his disobedience.

So, whose your counsel? Oprah? Horiscopes? Dr. Phil?  Self Help Books?

Reading through the O.T. has been so eye opening...learn from our fathers' mistakes...grow from their wisdom and experience.

And most of all, look to God! He lays it all out for us. Sometimes it seems as clear as mud, but He won't ever steer you wrong!!!! He knew you before you were born, formed you in your mother's womb...molded for His good works.

Don't waste yourself on shoddy advice or fads---God's word stands the test of time!

These are all things that we have been in deep discussion about with Jamie. He's getting to that delightful age where he knows best, we know nothing. I really want to instill this sensitivity to where he gets his knowledge.

O Lord, give my sons discerning hearts--let wisdom be their guides--grow in them hearts that follow after you, that walk in your ways and follow your statutes! Bless them with wise counsel when the time comes and protect them from fools with selfish motives at heart!

Dress to Impress?

I haven't written lately on my progress reading through the Bible cover to cover.  I just finished 2 Samuel this afternoon.....so I thought that I'd write about one of the things that really struck me.

In 2 Samuel 6, David was bringing the ark into Jerusalem.   He had started this journey earlier.  But when Uzzah fell against the ark and died, David became afraid and dropped it off at the closest place.   

When he finally came to terms with what had happened (and saw how greatly God was blessing the house where the ark stayed), David decided to give it a second go around.   This time, they stopped every few feet to offer sacrifices to the Lord.  David danced and sang with all of his might during this procession into Jerusalem.

He danced and sang with All His Might....so much so that his wife was embarrassed by his undignified manner. 

He replied that he would praise God with all of his might--undignified or not--God chose him, made him a prince and after all of that running around and hiding out in caves God's promise was finally coming true!   I'll dance to bring God glory, more recklessly than this--I'll look like a total fool because of all that he's done for me!

Here's where I was convicted....God has given us so much...yes, we are still in our own little barren desert right now, but we are still blessed so very much.

So, what or who do I keep this dignity for?

I should be shouting from the rooftops His praises....dancing down the street, singing with all of my might---Loco in the Spirit!  

Filled and totally over the top on fire for the Lord!   That's where I want to be!!!

I will celebrate, sing unto the Lord..I will sing to him a new song!

Then and Now

It's hard to believe that 2 summers have past since we got our new boat....


-hard to believe that the boys have gone from a little tank shaped tube that was all enclosed to almost getting up on water skis by themselves!


-even harder still to see how much they have grown since this picture was taken...

Yet, somethings never change....3 brothers hanging out by the water...bigger, but still buddies :)

Pepsi and Pox

2 Things that I really love to have in the house : 


Pepsi made with sugar in a glass bottle and Chicken Pox


(well, not all of the time....just on special occasions..but you get the idea)

Remember this from April Fools?  Rainbow Pox....Oh Yeah!


We are trying like the dickens to get the real deal here.....we had a play date with some new friends who recently moved to the area and brought these happy red spots ..the elusive chicken pox!


We have our fingers crossed that sometime in the next 10-14 days we'll be buying stock in calamine lotion and having more play dates with other friends wanting spotted kids too. 


If we've successfully inoculated our kiddos, I'll be sitting back happily drinking my Mexican Pepsi while we stick it to the ridiculous pharm companies ;)    


Just for kicks and giggles, I might wear a tie dyed shirt, make granola and get a pair of Jim's favorite shoes....

Have an awesome weekend!  It's supposed to be crazy hot here for the next few days....so we're heading to the lake :)

Water World

 this has got to be my favorite picture in a long time!  It's soooo Riley and Corey ;)   


One minute they're fighting, the next best buds...

 Someone is ready for the water!

 And someone else could care less again this year...I'm still holding out hope that we'll get him back in a tube!

 Everything is a competition with Dad now...how long can you stay on a tube...how crazy can you act without falling off....you name it Jamie will think of it!

 Here's a couple good shots of Jim to make up for me laughing at him the other day ;)

What can I say....my boys are made for water!

Only a Week's Gone By?!?

Here's a glimpse of the hilarity that flowed last weekend...

We are so blessed to have family and friends to be there along side of us...while everything could have been a major downer, they helped bring out some bright spots in our adventure ;)

Robbie, what can ya say about Robbie?  He hasn't lived in the area allllll that long, but wow...what a great friend!!!  He gives and gives and gives (usually sarcasm, but sometimes he actually helps out!  Just kidding Robbie :))

He helped with tent set up and hung out while the "dears" flew---as in "Dear, I think that this table needs to be over here" or "Oh Love of My LIFE...would you please hang this up Straight"...or my fav "Darling, I don't think that's possible" (Jim might have said that about 100 times during the set up..somehow, my vision and reality didn't always agree!).

Yes, I spelled Hackleburg wrong for the night....but in my defense, I only had a couple of hours of sleep and I was stressed out about the health dept. inspector being in the next booth (which I shouldn't have been because he came in and spent all of 10 seconds in our tent..duh, I talked to the H.D. a million times to make sure that I had everything perfect)


I'm pretty sure that Jim is actually ASLEEP in this picture.  About 2 seconds after this shot, he almost dropped the can of pop!

The boys came and went, back and forth from Grandma's pool to festival food...

Oh, festival food...urp!

Everyone enjoyed the lack of diet that weekend....

And of course, Grandma let them play carni games...

Wow, that preteen 'tude...I am sooo not ready for it!

Fairly certain that he is Actually awake in this one ;)

So, the festival sales were kind of a bust....but we were able to meet some really neat people and get the word out about Hackleburg.  


The boys learned some good lessons.   Jamie was pretty upset when he heard some high school boys running their mouths about how we'd never raise money that way.

We trusted in God, stepped out in obedience....and I'm so amazed to say that since last week's total...we've gone over the $1000 mark!!!!!


God Is So Good!  

When You Give A 7 Year Old A Camera...

Our day at the lake started like most lake trips...running behind, forgetting important things like grill tongs (but the hubster is super creative and made do with a monkey wrench).


This little guy was in fine form...

Until he fell off a metal culvert and scraped up his arm...grumpy grumpy grumpy about not being allowed in the water

To help ease the pain, I gave him my new to me camera...yep....my new baby..my $400 camera! (what was I thinking?!?  I just held my breath and prayed that it wouldn't end up in the lake!)


Here's a bit of the 400 images he captured:


Hi Dad!

Ooooohh.....yeah, no idea what we photographing there, but there were a few sky pics ;)

Almost!

Here we go!

Nice action shot!

And this is what you get when you're a Dad trying to hot dog it for your kids!

Ha!  Amazing what you miss when you're driving the boat!

Jamie kept yelling "Hot Dog Down..Hot Dog Down!"

Doh, that one's gonna hurt in the morning!

Friday Quickie

I figured you all would probably be getting sick of hearing about cookies...


so, here's what we're taking to the Alabama Mission Team pot luck tonight


Antipasto Skewers


Yummy!!!


Happy Friday!  Enjoy your weekend :)  


We're finally getting the boat out on the water tomorrow (and maybe a bonus stop at Brennan's grocery store...hint hint hint Jim!)  

We Will Stand By You

I'm sure most of you are waiting with baited breath to hear our weekend results....


It took me a day to process all that happened..and sleep for the first time in a month. (I'll post pictures later)


The sales were less than expected...the 4th was hot hot hot and every booth experienced the same problem.   Disappointing, yes.....


But then this morning, Jim showed me the video that the amazing Nate Miller put together for their trip.   I cried.  I remembered Why we did what we did.


This isn't the same video, but they used the same song...still made me cry....



As of today, we have raised over $700 to go to Hackleburg Helping Hands.   God is so good and faithful, that even with a freezer full of cookies we still raised a completely humbling over the top God sized amount!


Thank You to everyone who had donated, volunteered, and bought cookies!!!


Our cookie stock pile keeps getting smaller and smaller...people can't get enough of them-14 doz sold yesterday!.   If you're local and want some cookies, let me know!!!!!


So, our total keeps growing....and as I rewatched the mission trip video, I know that again...We're not done yet!


In August, my grandparents' town is having a festival and parade...I think we'll stick with the original game plan...and have a lemonade stand in their yard.


As long as there's a need, we'll be here....baking cookies and serving lemonade....


Because, We are standing by you Hackleburg Alabama!!!!   

Worth It?

After 5 days of baking for usually over 8 hrs a day...

One really starts to question their sanity!!!!!


Without a doubt, I'd still be at the church frosting if it weren't for my wonderful friends!!!!!!!


Thank You Amber!

And Grandma!

And Shelby

And sweet Abby

And my mom!

These ladies worked their fingers to the bone to frost over 500 cookies plus put up with me asking them to dot a little heart over Alabama!


Sleep is soooo lacking that my brain is barely functioning.....my feet and back are killing me....and I just had to ask myself today as I was running to the store Again:


Ugh, Is This Really Worth IT?!?


To which I got a swift reply from God----The People of Hackleburg are worth it to me, Shelly.


So, yes..I've been sore and frazzled and super tired....but, when it helps bring comfort or fill a need to someone hurting from such great loss....It's Totally Worth It!

It's onward and upward....marching to the finish line of this great big crazy cookie adventure!


We set up our booth this afternoon.   It was pretty slow today, but I was warned that tomorrow will be nuts!


I'll have more pictures and plenty of stories because I just have this feeling that God is going to move in a big way through this!


I'm off to bed so that I can try for a few zzz's before the alarm goes off again and we start all over...


Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!!!!