Liberty
Happy July 4th! We thank God today for our freedom in this Great Nation but more importantly - today and every day - we Celebrate our Freedom in Christ!
The Cross of Christ is the REAL statue of liberty!
In New York Harbor stands a lady
With a torch raised to the sky
And all who see her knows she stand for
Liberty for you and meI’m so glad to be called an American
To be named with the brave and the free
I will honor our flag and our trust in God
And the Statue of LibertyOn lonely Golgotha stood a cross
With my Lord raised to the sky
And all who kneel there live forever
As all the saints can testifyI’m so glad to be called a Christian
To be named with the ransomed and whole
As the Statue liberates the citizen
So the cross liberates the soulOh the cross is my Statue of Liberty
It was there that my soul was set free
Unashamed I’ll proclaim that a rugged cross
Is my Statue of LibertyUnashamed I’ll proclaim that a rugged cross
Is my Statue of Liberty
Flashback Friday: The Tree!
So I just realized that I’ve done all this talking about our family tree and I have never posted a picture of the finished mural with pictures on it! Shame on me!
I have been dreadfully slow in compiling information on all the photos up there but that’s on my list of a bajillion things to do. (Somewhere among all the other things on my list like - quit my job, find a farm to live on, have another baby (probably with no insurance), raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, love my husband well, etc.) No wonder I haven’t found the time to write down everybody’s story!
At any rate - There’s the tree in all of it’s glory. It’s a delight to sit under this at each meal. If the time ever actually does come to move, I will miss this the most. (Although I do happen to be on close terms with the artist. 
)
His name means “Laughter”
Remember when sweet Isaac arrived last May?
It’s so hard to believe that he and Sarah are already a year old! Somebody - please find me the remote control for these young’uns so I can put things on “slow motion!”
We got to spend some time with Bruce’s sister and her family last night (and the whole clan will be together tomorrow at his other sister’s farm to celebrate the 4th! That might just become a yearly tradition!)
Isaac was so adorable! When he saw the camera come out, he started cheesing instantly!
He and Sarah has fun playing together.
and Abby and Nathan had a great time with their cousins (and Nana!)
More tomorrow from the Stouffer Farm!
It’s been a busy week.
We went to look at (yet another!) farm yesterday. It was beautiful and holds much promise.
I have no idea if this will all work out or not but even if it doesn’t, God is showing us that He can bring things out of nowhere.
I don’t know why I am ever surprised when He does that. He did, after all, create the universe “ex nihilo.” Bringing things out of nowhere seems to be his M.O.
Whether we stay right here in Nashville forever or if He leads us somewhere else, I’m glad to know that we are held in the palm of His hand.
Summer.
More complete with popsicles.
Well, this is a possibility.
Remember last spring when we were considering a move to Scottsville, KY? The house up there was in such disarray that I had to photoshop it to even let myself consider living there.
We’ve been pursuing a change of pace for some time now but we’re taking our time and being patient - Just waiting on God’s timing and His provision. Ultimately, we’d like to live and work on some property (Bruce would do some cattle work) and we would like for me to be able to NOT work outside the home and just focus on being a wife, a mother, a teacher - essentially the queen of the castle.
That’s a tall order, huh? Yes, it is - But we serve an awesome God and He has put these desires into our hearts. He has been bringing things out of nowhere lately. Various living situations to consider - to get us thinking in directions we had not considered before.
We’ve talked to a man in Franklin about being a caretaker of an estate there. That didn’t pan out but there were several things that would not have been ideal about that one - even though it was relatively close to Nashville. Most recently we took a trip to Kentucky to meet with a cattle farmer there who would like Bruce to work for him and would offer us living arrangements as part of the package. Here’s the farm house (pictured below). It’s a bit small and quirky but certainly a vast improvement over last year’s visit to Kentucky!
God is up to something and we are just walking along and trusting Him as this all unfolds. It could be years and years until this dream is fulfilled but we believe that it will eventually happen and that when it does, it will be EXCELLENT!!
Mama Mondays: The Apron!
I can’t believe I have not told you all about this yet! I MADE AN APRON! My friend Rowena was so kind as to post a tutorial about how to make an apron out of a skirt but I didn’t see her post until after I had already made this one! I like her pattern, though, and I have another skirt will soon meet it’s demise at the hands of my seam ripper!
I’ve had this lovely pleated skirt forever but it made me look like a big marshmallow so I took the pleats out, cut it up, and made an apron out of it! I wish I would have taken pictures of the process but, well, I didn’t.
At any rate, I’m right proud of it!
Do you have a Mama Monday post that you’d like to share? Please post a link in the comments section!
Grammie to the rescue.
I have had a need for rescue a lot lately, it seems.
Bruce was doing a bit of job exploring in Southern Kentucky today and I was flying solo with three kids and a pile of laundry almost as tall as my 15 ft ceilings. I called Grammie to see if she might come and do me the favor of having some adult conversation and she obliged! (And she brought POPSICLES!)
She also helped me fold and put away laundry, entertained the kids while I cooked dinner, colored with them, telling them stories about the pictures she was drawing of her childhood home, sat outside with us while the kids rode bicycles and played kickball in the streets with the neighbors.
Bruce came home and joined us, much to the pleasure of the neighbor boys who love playing anything with “Mr. Bruce.” (Being a PE teacher means you get recruited to play baseball and kickball and football and…..)
We had a great night and I was so glad Grammie was a part of it! Here are some pictures:
Bruce rolling the ball:
Nathan rehydrates while Abby tackles the neighbor:
Some serious art time:
Abby in her “Laura” braids
A rare moment when Sarah sits with someone other than me:
Sarah showing us her mouth full of teeth:
Not pictured: Me, not losing my ever lovin’ mind, thanks to my dear super mama!
THANK YOU GRAMMIE!
Her Indian name would be:
crazyhair.
Anyone here using Internet Explorer?
I have been using Firefox for so long to browse the internet that I sometimes forget about IE. Today I had to use that other browser for something and viewed this blog using IE instead of Firefox and realized that it displays all funky! All of the sidebar stuff was pushed way down to the bottom of the page.
Anyone here using IE?
(My sitemeter stats tell me that over 65% of you are!)
Is everything displaying neat and orderly? Or if you scroll to the bottom, are the things in the two sidebars on the right all crammed down to the bottom of the page? What about other browsers? Anyone using anything else that is not displaying things correctly?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Gracias!
