A Giving of Thanks

I do thank the Lord for my life every day. I thank Him for my family, my friends, my home, my health, and most recently for my new job which I am enjoying so much, and the list goes on. But what about all of the things that I don't even know about, or realize, or can count, or imagine? He has blessed me beyond my human ability to comprehend. 

I fear the only thing I have to give back is to be thankful. Truly thankful.

"A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations."

Psalm 100:1-5

New Life

What bunnies and chicks have to do with the true meaning of Easter, I don't know. But the egg is a different story. Just as the egg was a symbol of the rebirth of the earth in spring celebrations, early Christians also adopted it as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, traditional Orthodox Easter eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ.

In our family, we tend to go a little crazy with colors and patterns:

For my son we started with brown eggs and did a tie dyed effect, swirling the colors together. I think it makes them look like a reptile's eggs.

My daughter is all about the pastels! Starting with white eggs, she loaded on the colors and used a paper towel to create texture (as she proudly holds out her own creation).

Dyeing the eggs was a delightful family project, as was having the kids hunt for them. But I also think it was a valuable opportunity to talk about new life. The new life that we have been given through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

White As Snow

On this Good Friday I am watching the snow fall silently to the ground, covering the grass and rooftops and I am reminded of a simple song:

White as snow, white as snow
Though my sins were as scarlet
Lord, I know, Lord, I know
That I'm clean and forgiven

Through the power of Your blood
Through the wonder of Your love
Through faith in You I know that I can be
White as snow

And I am so grateful ... and completely unworthy.

Involunarily Moved

I wasn't going to go. Waking up as if I had been run over by a semi truck, I was thinking that I wasn't going to make it to my Bible Study this morning. Yet ... miraculously I got ready in time with my son in the car, so I took that as a sign that I needed to be there. Before leaving the house I threw my Bible and study books into a white recyclable grocery bag from Trader Joe's, my favorite one because it's so big and brand new.

I usually don't bother with a bag to carry my things in, but today I did for some reason. Well, I now know that reason. Simply put, the Lord moved me to do so.

At Bible Study we had a guest speaker, Arlene Tatum of International Reconciliation Ministries, tell us about her ministry in Rwanda. She told us the oppression and genocide that has taken place there and how she has been able to minister through tangible gifts such as scarves and ties. The people of that country are poor, but a simple gift shows them God's compassion and builds relationships. The speaker also told us that the Rwandan women love to use the recyclable woven grocery bags (plastic bags are not permitted) to carry their belongings in. Now, I didn't know to bring a scarf or tie ... but I did have that Trader Joe's bag! I happily gave it to Arlene to take to Rwanda with her in May.

It wasn't a big sacrifice on my part, even though it was my favorite grocery bag. But still I felt like somehow I was helping. And I am still marveling at how when God wants something done, he'll make it happen.

Meeting For Coffee

This morning I enjoyed my morning coffee with Ruth and Naomi. We shared many things with each other. I served my recipe for an outstanding homemade pumpkin spice cappuccino while Ruth taught me about the hard work of gleaning from barley fields. I showed off my snazzy Moleskine journal, and Naomi told me all about how the great famine in her life came to an end through the Lord's provision. I learned about the importance of friendship, faith, kindness, love and diligence.

Suddenly my contributions don't seem very impressive compared to their great lessons; but I am grateful for the time we spent together.

God of Wonders

After a warm sunny day and an evening of intense thunderstorms, this is the glorious sight we were treated to.

A double rainbow: a stunning reminder of God's promises.

"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." Genisis 9:13

Five Things I Learned From Martha

Martha Stewart is a wealth of information. She has teams of people at her disposal to research, invent, and advertise. Whether you like her or not, you can't deny that she is the go-to person for great homekeeping, cooking, gardening and crafting tips.

Here are my top 5 awesome things I have learned from her:

1. How to clean a copper pot

This actually does work! Cut a lemon in half, dip it into coarse salt, and rub it on the exterior of your copper pot. It removes a lot of the tarnish, although a professional cleaner is needed for it to really shine.

2. How to make your liquid dish soap look pretty

Fill an olive oil decanter with your favorite dish soap. I've been doing this for years and not only does it look nice, I end up using less soap as it dispenses slowly, like olive oil would.


3. What the chrome bowls under electric coil burners are really for

They look like fancy drip catchers. I used to line these with foil to avoid having to clean them so frequently. The truth is, they reflect the heat from the coil burners and therefore should NEVER be lined with foil. As a result, I do clean them frequently in the sink with soapy water.

4. Kitchen shears

I don't know why it took me so long to realize the value in a pair of kitchen shears! I love to use them for cutting up chives, bacon and for opening messy food packaging. I used to keep my shears in a drawer along with my other utensils, but now they have a place of honor with my knife set.

5. How to be like Mary and not like Martha

This may be an odd thing to have learned from the queen of perfect. I am a perfectionist myself -I want things to look perfect, I want to be perfect and I struggle with knowing that I am far from perfect. But I am learning as a believer to be a Mary instead of a Martha. I am trying to slow down, listen, and sit at the feet of Jesus instead of worrying about how to impress Him (and others). I have a long way to go as I just know that if He were to come to my house, I would struggle greatly with not trying to rush around in a panic to cook and clean and, well ... appear to be perfect. He would see right through that! So while Martha Stewart is the queen of perfect, I don't have to be. Besides, Martha has a whole company to do things for her, I just have little ol' me.

Now I must resist the urge to fluff up the slumpy pillow on my living room couch ...

Easter Blessings

My amaryllis came into full bloom today. A perfect day for new life!

He is Risen! He is Risen, indeed! I tried to teach my daughter this saying and how we celebrate Easter because Jesus is alive in Heaven. Pretty heavy stuff for a four year-old, but it's important to know none the less.

Today has been a day of blessings. The blessing of joy on the kids faces when they discovered what the Easter Bunny left. The blessing of praising and rejoicing our King. The blessing of togetherness as we dyed eggs and hunted them. And the blessing of decent weather so I could go a little camera crazy and take tons of photos. What a good day.

I guess I went a little overboard photographing eggs. But what can I say, they are so vibrant and they hold still!

These jewel toned eggs were achieved by dying brown eggs instead of white. I just love the deep colors.

Happy Easter!

Good Friday Cookies

You may be wondering what cookies have to do with Good Friday. The answer is ... absolutely nothing. This is a day to reflect and to be grateful. But since I have had a strange compulsion to bake lately, I dragged out some cookie cutters and thought it would be a fun project for my daughter and I to make sugar cookies. It was also a good opportunity to talk about each of the cutter shapes and why they are significant to Easter.

I asked my girl about the cross and she said "That is where Jesus died." So far, so good. Then I pointed to the lamb cutter and she had no idea what the significance was. It was difficult to explain how Jesus is the Lamb. How He was the sacrifice. Not fully being able to verbalize it so that a four year-old would understand, we moved on. I explained that the egg represents new life that we were given when Jesus died for our sins. She perked up and said, "I can have new life too when I go to see Jesus in Heaven!" - I just about cried at that one! And then of course the church shape represents where we as believers can go to fellowship with others, praise the Lord, and learn more about His amazing life and death.

So while sugar cookies have as much to do with Easter as chocolate eggs and bunnies do, it was a good learning experience for her and a time to reflect for me.

And as a side note, I have to say they were very delicious!

The Plant Whisperer

It's true. I am a genius! I have single-handedly brought a plant back to life!

Well, not really, but that's what we humans would like to believe. That we have the ability to perform miracles, to breathe life into something. It is our nature to want to take the credit and have all the glory. When really, the glory and the credit belongs to God.

After realizing that I had an amaryllis bulb still in it's box out in the garage (that had been there for about three years!), I decided that it would be a good project for my daughter and I to work on. I pulled the pot and the bulb out of the box and discovered that the bulb had actually flowered and produced leaves! The flower didn't get very big, it was shriveled and dry and the leaves were not very impressive. I started to peel away layers off the bulb and found the bulb to be very small and sad looking. I found the beginnings of two leaves, struggling to find the light ... and they were as white as snow.

As fast as we could, my daughter and I put the bulb in the soil and set the pot by the window so it could get some sun. It has been a week now, and the leaves have found the light. They are becoming green and starting to grow. It is a miracle.

After only a week, the leaves are growing and turning a beautiful green with pinkish tips!

This left an impression on me. I equate it to my spiritual life in that if I am not feeding myself with the Word of God, I am stunted and unable to bear fruit or flower. I may try on my own, but unless I can find the light, I will remain colorless and sad.

I would rather be a brilliant red flower.

Explaining Death

I have to remove all of the childrens' Bibles from my daughter's room. I know that sounds a bit strange and extreme, but what I didn't realize when I gave them to her was that they are quite graphic about battle, death, murder and The Crucifixion. Not a very good thing when my baby is afraid of death, even at her very young age of four. She's also afraid of growing old.

On the way to school the other day my daughter saw a plane in the sky and said "Look Mom, that plane is flying so high! Is it going to Heaven?" I said that it couldn't go as high as Heaven. She then asked if dying was bad. I said no, and explained that death is a part of life. That Jesus loves her and will one day call her home to be with him in Heaven.

Then she asked if she will have nails in her hands when she dies. Yeeesh! How does one explain to a little girl that crucifixion is no longer practiced. That she does not have to worry about such things. And, yes ... everyone dies.

It's moments like these that make it very difficult to be a parent sometimes.