Ward Miles - First Year (Video)

There are no words I can add....just please watch the video.

This little guy was only 2 ounces more than I was! <3

http://vimeo.com/78393869

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.." ~Jeremiah 1:5

"In every season of waiting, our response should be to rely on Christ as the true source of our joy..." (Jasmine Baucham)

“Don’t spend your discontent moments daydreaming about married life. It happens to all of us. We become discontent and harried and look out over that pile of dirty dishes and sigh about the day when you’ll be able to be supper on the table for the man of your dreams- when there’s a guy in your life who needs you, not just to change his diaper or feed him his applesauce.

“But…sowing habits of discontentment has two negative results. First, it takes our sights off of the here and now, and sucks the industry and joy out of today’s service. Second, it becomes a part of our character and demeanor that is sure to hinder us later in life.

“Remember, this is not the only “waiting” season you will ever have to endure should the Lord bless us with husbands some day, we may wait for job transfers, moving opportunities, a biblically functioning church, the blessing of children…in every season of waiting, our response should be to rely on Christ as the true source of our joy.”

   ~Jasmine Baucham from her book Joyfully at Home

The Real Truth about ‘Boring’ Men — and the Women who Live with Them: Redefining Boring

(Post originally written by Ann Voskamp)

So not every guy proposes with lip syncing, rolling cameras, and a choreographed entourage.

Yeah —  so what if  your Dad didn’t?

He just pulled that beat-up Volkswagon Rabbit of his over in front of Murray Reesor’s hundred acre farm right there where Grey Township meets Elma Township, pulled out a little red velvet box, and whispered it in the snowy dark: “Marry me?”

“He didn’t even get down on one knee or anything?”

You boys ask it incredulous, like there’s some kind of manual for this kind of holy.

And I’ve got no qualms in telling you no. No, he didn’t even get down on one knee – it was just a box, a glint of gold in the dark, two hallowed words and a question mark.

“Boring.”

I know. When you’ve watched a few dozen mastermind proposals on youtube, shared them with their rolling credits on Facebook, marvelling at how real romance has an imagination like that.

Can I tell you something, sons?

Romance isn’t measured by how viral your proposal goes. The internet age may try to sell you something different, but don’t ever forget that viral is closely associated with sickness – so don’t ever make being viral your goal.
Your goal is always to make your Christ-focus contagious – to just one person.
It’s more than just imagining some romantic proposal.
It’s a man who imagines washing puked-on sheets at 2:30 am, plunging out a full and plugged toilet for the third time this week, and then scraping out the crud in the bottom screen of the dishwasher — every single night for the next 37 years without any cameras rolling or soundtrack playing — that’s imagining true romance.
The man who imagines slipping his arm around his wife’s soft, thickening middle age waistline and whispering that he couldn’t love her more…. who imagines the manliness of standing bold and unashamed in the express checkout line with only maxi pads and tampons because someone he loves is having an unexpected Saturday morning emergency.

The man who imagines the coming decades of a fluid life – her leaking milky circles through a dress at Aunt Ruth’s birthday party, her wearing thick diaper-like Depends for soggy weeks after pushing a whole human being out through her inch-wide cervix, her bleeding through sheets and gushing amniotic oceans across the bathroom floor and the unexpected beauty of her crossing her legs everytime she jumps on the trampoline with the kids.

The real romantics imagine greying and sagging and wrinkling as the deepening of something sacred.
Because get this, kids — How a man proposes isn’t what makes him romantic. It’s how a man purposes to lay down his life that makes him romantic.
And a man begins being romantic years before any ring – romance begins with only having eyes for one woman now – so you don’t go giving your eyes away to cheap porn. Your dad will say it sometimes to me, a leaning over – “I am glad that there’s always only been you.” Not some bare, plastic-surgeon-scalpel-enhanced pixels ballooning on a screen, not some tempting flesh clicked on in the dark, not some photo-shopped figment of cultural beauty that’s basically a lie.

The real romantics know that stretchmarks are beauty marks and that different shaped women fit into the different shapes of men souls and that real romance is really sacrifice.
I know – you’re thinking, “Boring.”

Can you see it again – how your grandfather stood over your grandmother’s grave and brushed away his heart leaking without a sound down his cheeks?

50 boring years. 50 unfilmed years of milking 70 cows, raising 6 boys and 3 girls, getting ready for sermon every Sunday morning, him helping her with her zipper. 50 boring years of arguing in Dutch and making up in touching in the dark, 50 boring years of planting potatoes and weeding rows on humid July afternoons, 50 boring years of washing the white Corel dishes and turning out the light on the mess – till he finally carried her in and out of the tub and helped her pull up her Depends.

Don’t ever forget it:
The real romantics are the boring ones — they let another heart bore a hole deep into theirs.
Be one of the boring ones. Pray to be one who get 50 boring years of marriage – 50 years to let her heart bore a hole deep into yours.
Let everyone do their talking about 50 shades of grey, but don’t let anyone talk you out of it: committment is pretty much black and white. Because the truth is, real love will always make you suffer. Simply commit: Who am I willing to suffer for?
Who am I willing to take the reeking garbage out for and clean out the gross muck ponding at the bottom of the fridge? Who am I willing to listen to instead of talk at? Who am I willing to hold as they grow older and realer? Who am I willing to die a bit more for every day? Who am I willing to make heart-boring years with? Who am I willing to let bore a hole into my heart?
Get it: Life – and marriage proposals — isn’t not about one up-manship — it’s about one down-manship. It’s about the heart-boring years of sacrifice and going lower and serving. It’s not about how well you perform your proposal. It’s about how well you let Christ perform your life.
Sure, go ahead, have fun, make a ridiculously good memory and we’ll cheer loud: propose creatively — but never forget that what wows a woman and woos her is you how you purpose to live your life.

I’m praying, boys — be Men. Be one of the ‘boring” men – and let your heart be bore into. And know there are women who love that kind of man.
The kind of man whose romance isn’t flashy – because love is gritty.
The kind of man whose romance isn’t about cameras — because it’s about Christ.
The kind of man whose romance doesn’t have to go viral — because it’s going eternal.
No, your dad did not get down on one knee when he proposed – because the romantic men know it’s about living your whole life on your knees.
There are Fridays. And the quiet romantics who will take out the garbage without fanfare. There will be the unimaginative calendar by the fridge, with all it’s scribbled squares of two lives being made one. The toilet seat will be left predictably up. The sink will be resigned to its load of last night’s dishes.

And there is now and the beautiful boring, the way two lives touch and go deeper into time with each other.

The clock ticking passionately into decades.

'Passion and Purity' by Elisabeth Elliot

I got a new book, Passion & Purity yesterday. So excited to start reading it! :D

If you have read this book, comment below with your thoughts about it.

“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.” ~Elisabeth Elliot

“I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts. Its easy to talk oneself into a decision that has no permanence – easier sometimes than to wait patiently.” ~Elisabeth Elliot

Planting, School, Rubber Bands, Kittens, and Flame-throwers...

So these last two days were spent doing school, cleaning, and finishing all our planting for this year. We will be transplanting the fruit trees in the spring.

As for that brick sidewalk that I was working on, well that will now be put off until the spring as well- Daddy and I decided to put flat rocks down for the winter and I will work on it in the spring, when it is somewhat warmer.

It's COLD outside now!! Although, we actually did not get snow the other day- thankfully, since that is the day we got the rest of the pine trees in. :)

Today I went outside to take pictures of Daddy using the flame thrower in the dark. My fingers were numb when I was done...I got some awesome shots, so it was well worth the cold fingers. ;) Maybe sometime I will post a couple.

This week has been going so amazing- getting up early and getting things done I have been wanting to get done, with a little less distractions.

Well, my kitty, Charlie, is much better now. In fact, he is getting a fat tummy. Haha... He is turning into a fatty! Let's just hope he doesn't eat anymore than he is already! ^_^

My Dad and I are now shooting rubber bands at stuff to see who can hit things...Haha, this was his idea not mine! He's been doing it since he was a kid, so he is wayyy better than I am. Boys..... *chuckles*
I haven't even hit anything yet. I'm such a lame gal. '_-

Alright, off to bed for now.

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work." ~2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Mountains in Scotland 

Jeremiah 33:15-16

Good morning those Beloved in Christ.
I hope the Lord blesses you with an encouraging day, glorifying Him in all you do.

Here are some the verses I read in my morning devotions:

"In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness." ~Jeremiah 33:15-16

Heidelberg Catechism Rap (Video and Lyrics)

Curt "Voice" Allen performs the rap song he wrote about Kevin DeYoung's book on the Heidelberg Catechism, "The Good News We Almost Forgot." Kevin and C.J. Mahaney, who challenged Curt to write the song at Next 2010, are in the front row.

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Yeah I'm on a mission like a couple spies, and that guys is the reason why I catechize. The good news we almost forgot I recognize, Heidelberg rediscovering the gospel prize. It's not scripture but the truth in it will mention he, introduction hide and seek the 16th century. Written in a time when your mind was the weaponry, this document is back into the populace shouts to Kevin D. Better than you think not as bad as you remember, purpose driven truth, from Frederick the elector. He would initiate, the 129 questions to illustrate truths like Christ propitiates. All in a document, whose purpose was to teach children, a guide for preachers, and confessions in a church building. And this is all fact The Heidelberg Cat has been around but now it's seem like it is coming back.

Hook:
We believe in the cross, believe in his life,
We believe in his death, believe he's the Christ.
We believe that he rose from grave yes it is him
And we read the Heidelberg Catechism

We believe in the after life and we believe nothing's after Christ, so we stand our ground, cuz the truth's been around from the word to the Heidelberg.

Verse 2:
Year of the Heidelberg resulting in renewed passion, and we could see it in our lives lights camera action. Let's take a gander and address a few questions from Heidelberg document then look at the answers. But before that make sure that, you know how it's broken down, in a Q & A format, a few sections. Suggestions how to read this not to sound promotional, but Kevin put it in his book to make it a devotional. Each question each answer has a bit of commentary, so the application of it is not some involuntary. Mystery, the history screams through rings true but I'll just leave that up to God, cuz that's between you. to believe, but to believe you gotta read you and then you meditate on all the truths that the Heidelberg will illustrate. What's that the catechism homey where you been the good news we almost forgot let's get it in!

Verse 3:
From the word to the Heidelberg, we see that what's the comfort of life should come first. And in death that I with, body and soul but belong to the savior, commentary from me man, tell this to your neighbor. Moving on, how many things are necessary for thee, enjoying this comfort, to live and die happily? Three, my sin's misery, deliverance from sin, and gratitude for God is how the answer ends. Let's stretch it out the Lord's day 23 the grandaddy of them all, questions 59 and 60. What good does it do to believe in all this? In Christ I am right heir to the promise. Paraphrase, anyways I'm kinda limited I'm just trying to say a couple things my man Kevin did. On the Heidelberg, go and get you one, and by the way CJ homey this was fun.

Planting, Thrift Shopping, and School

We have been spending these last two weeks planting shrubs that were on sale at Home Depot and Lowe's. Which includes digging holes twice as wide and pretty deep down, my Dad and I then mix mushroom soil with our soil to get a good mixture to put around the bush in their holes. Fun and hard working times during these last warmer (ish) days.
It might get MUCH colder and possibly snow (?!) on early next week/ Tuesday!
I hope not, because we still have pine trees and now some fruit trees to plant (also some fence post holes) and we need to do them before it freezes over.
I am thinking tomorrow is going to be a long day.  *Deep breath*
I am glad I got some house cleaning down today because I may not have much time to do it tomorrow. We'll see! Life is exciting indeed!

Recently we went to a Thrift store. I needed to because during the spring/summer I got lots of shirts...but they were all t-shirts, which aren't the best on chilly autumn and winter days! So this time I got tons of blouses, so that takes care of that factor....but there were not many skirt there, sadly, so maybe we will go again sometime soon and hopefully find something!
Thrift store shopping is one my favourite kinds of shopping- that and craft shopping! (And I am not really into clothes shopping, lol)
At Thrift Stores they seem to have a relatively good selection of modest (at least somewhat modest) clothes, which is such a blessing.  There are SO many rows of skirts, shirts, and dresses, etc. I have found a lot of treasures there. I especially like Wednesdays there...They are at least half off!!! And their price are super cheap in the first place. Whoopie! ;)
We then get home and spend a good amount of time labeling (like each person's names, etc.) and taking out staples (where they price tags are stabled on)...Fun times! :D

I have been spending more time doing school recently, so that is wonderful!
Almost done with this math book! :D Yippee! So excited to start the next grade soon that I can hardly contain myself. ;)

Pretty amazing how your attitude can change as you get older.
I really like school now.
Thankful that God is maturing me to enjoy the things I need to do. :)

"And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." ~Revelation 5:13

"Your Hands" by JJ Heller

I heard this song on Pandora the other day. So needed it.
"When my world is shaking Heaven stands....When my heart is breaking I never leave Your Hands..."

God bless you all and have a blessed rest of the week. <3