Bed Head

This is Bogart waking up from a nap in his kennel. Joey and I think his hair looks an old man's hair when he wakes up. He's not real happy that I'm documenting his morning routine.

Bogart gets up very slowly. You would think that he had been sleeping for years...

No pictures before the Beauty Queen has properly awoken please.

He places one paw out in slow motion at a time & gives us a side shot of that gorgeous mane.

Really really slowly. I think he wants to make me wait on him. A Power Play. I think he has control issues.

And he's finally up.

And that's the last time you can catch a picture of him. He's an ADD blur of fur the rest of the day. I guess it's his time to be a little Diva Dog.

Cultivating Weeds

Joey and I are working on our backyard. He has drawn a very precise schematic diagram fleshing out exactly where each bush, stone and blade of monkey grass will be placed. Have I told you that Joey is precise? He's precise. Maybe not with socks or used towels - but in yard work, he's precise.

In the meantime, I'm weeding. Hoeing. Weeding. Hoeing. Weeding. There is something about weeding that I like. Well, once I get past the backbreaking labor of it all. The smell of the dirt. The feel of the roots slowly loosening their grip on the soil. The fact that I'm removing things that don't belong to make room for something beautiful.

The weeds I am pulling are the weedy grassy kind. A poor man's grass. The kind that look so small on the top, but has an intricate root system below. The kind that if you're not careful to pull up slowly will come back to bite you as a Triffid next year. The funny thing about these guys was that they looked so small on the surface. Who would know that the roots could go so deep and spread so far?

When you're pulling weeds for hours on end, you're left alone with your thoughts. Just you and the weeds. So being a deep thinker prone to think about the meaning of life, I let my imagination run wild and think about...weeds.

No really, how did they got such a bad rap? I mean, who was it that designated them the "undesirable" plants?

The reason lies in the fact that weeds overtake the garden and choke out the other plants. By definition, a weed is one that is usually not valued where it's growing and grows vigorously.

It made me think about weeds in my life. Anything that God doesn't want in my life is basically just like those weeds. What do I need to get rid of that is actively choking qualities that God wants me to cultivate?

"As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word,
but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the world, and
it proves unfruitful."
Mt. 13:22

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took
and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has
grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the
birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Mt. 13:31

Am I cultivating weeds when I could be cultivating the Fruits of the Spirit?

Sister Time

My sister, Jo, and I went to the David Gray concert last night at Verizon Wireless. We had so much fun! Much needed sister time.

Breese: Breast Milk Cheese

Have leftover breast milk? Feeling guilty that it's going to waste? Here's the perfect at home business for nursing moms who want to earn a little cash on the side. Turn it into cheese!

Ew. Eww. Ewww. And more ew. I mean, it's good to not be wasteful, but there's a line. Be grossed out with me and watch the video.



Ew again. Would you try this stuff? I like how he said that he realized it was like "liquid gold". Maybe he should have done a little market research first.

Ew.

Outbreak

Oh dear. I have caught It. Baby Fever.

This weekend I got to hold a baby. And not just any baby, but the son of a very dear friend which makes it all the more special. A friend with whom I have walked in tandem from singlehood, then dating, and finally into marriedhood (If this isn't a word yet, I've got dibs on it - let the record show...).

She's basically traveled with me through all the hoods, and has just recently ventured into the newest and most challenging hood of all: motherhood.

I just figured I would let her scope it out first. She'll learn the ropes and then I'll follow later. The timing is to be determined as I wait for the Clif Notes from my scout, although Joey swears that he sees babies in my pupils since we held the baby. I can't lie. You just can't help but think about babies when you hold a newborn.

Baby Fever is catching. It kind of blurs your vision and cloudies up all practical thought. When holding a baby, it's all you can do to not say "I want one of these. Ok! All plans out the window! It's a good thing that it takes two to have a baby as you need one to always keep the other rationale in case of a sudden outbreak of Baby Fever.

I think that God gave babies special gifts that make them absolutely irresistable and therefore perfect for making everyone else want to have babies. Their smell, their adorableness, their absolute faith in you and the way their tiny fingers latch around your one finger. You can't help but be sucked in and absolutely smitten.

BUT, I'm just thinking about it, I promise. I'm not acting upon it, just mulling it over a little. I'm a muller so these things take time. In the meantime, I'll concentrate on learning how to keep my potted plants around for more than a week or two. Here's to Spring and Babies!

8 Reasons Why We Should Memorize Scripture

Scripture memory. I'm hit or miss with this. Sadly, it's most often miss. I've set little goals to memorize a verse here or there and I let it fall to the wayside. Man, this week I have been convicted about my lack of Scripture memory. I listened to a John Piper podcast and there was just no getting around it: as Christians we need to be memorizing Scripture. And then Beth Moore reminded me again on Tuesday. I think the Lord is trying to tell me something.

Now, the last time that I was really good about faithfully memorizing verses was in Pioneer Club. Pioneer Club was like AWANAs, GAs, or Sunbeams if you grew up being a card carrying member of one of those clubs. And if you've never heard of these, no, they're not rival gangs (although Sunbeams would be a cool gang name). They're kind of like vacation Bible school but year-round. They're all similar and we got points and badges for memorizing Bible verses each week. I think vests were involved, but I may have blurred that from my memory. I've never liked wearing a vest. Or shoulder pads. Or stirrup pants for that matter. Sorry, vests make me think of these items. You see how the memory verse work could've fallen to the wayside? I get sidetracked really easy.

When I think about Muslims memorizing pages of Koran and in comparison most Christians know John 3:16 and maybe a few other verses, wow. I'm way guilty on this one. I always have the thought that oh, I can look it up when I need it or I have the gist of verses in my mind. What if you don't have time to look it up? I ran across that in my conversation with Darwin, an athiest. Darwin knew just enough Scripture to distort it for his needs.

No, our faith does not rest upon Scripture memory as our salvation is not based on works, but how much could our faith and intimacy with Christ be furthered with Scripture memory?

John Piper lists 8 reasons why Christians need to memorize Scripture:

1. Memorizing Scripture makes meditation possible when you can't be reading the Bible and meditation is the pathway to understand.

2. Memorizing Scripture strengthens my faith because faith comes from hearing and hearing by hearing the Word of God that happens when I am hearing in my head.

3. Memorizing Scripture shapes the way I view the world by conforming my mind to God's viewpoint.

4. Memorizing Scripture makes God's Word more readily accessible to overcoming temptation that leads to sin because warnings and promises are the way we conquer the deceitful lies of Satan.

5. Memorizing Scripture guards my mind making it easier to detect error and the world is filled with error because the god of this world is a liar.

6. Memorizing Scripture enables me to hit the Devil in the face with a force he can't resist to protect myself and my family from his assaults.

7. Memorizing Scripture provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others in need.

8. Memorizing Scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus and he talks to us through his Word.

John Piper pointed out that Satan also has Scripture memorized as he quoted it in the Garden of Gethsemane to Jesus. I don't know about you, but that is a weird thought to me. Satan knows Scripture better than Christians. He knows it inside and out making him an expert at changing up one little thing to change the meaning of God's Word. These days so many take just the few parts of Scripture that they would like to live by and ignore the rest OR they twist it to make their own meaning.

This is why it's incredibly important that we can discern the Truth.

I am going to add the portion of Scripture that I am meditating on and add on to the passage as I have each verse successfully memorized. You all will be my accountability. And you are welcome to join me too!

Check out John Piper's Sermon HERE.

Layla Grace

While I have been blogging about mundane things like the weather and downright ridiculous topics like being a snuggleupagus, there are people who are facing possibly the worst day of their lives. I'm not meaning to be a downer or to make you sad, but we all need a reality check sometimes as to how blessed we actually are.

I've been hit with this thought in the opposite position before. When I was 15 my Dad had unexpected health problems that rocked my family to the core. I always wonder what life would have been like had that never happened. Where would we be today? That day there was a change in course for each member of our family.

There was an entire summer where we didn't know if Dad would make it and though thankfully I still have my sweet Dad as you know, life was never the same. It was a new reality. It woke me up.

I remember during that summer being on the way to Hermann hospital to see Dad in the NICU with my Grandmother and looking over at a car with kids that looked to be about my age. They were smiling and laughing as if they didn't have a care in the world.

How could they laugh and smile? Didn't they know the world was falling apart? At least for me.

And I thought, I want to go back to That. To Before.

That instance has always been a reminder that while today I may be at the top of the mountain, there are others feeling it crumble beneath them.

But I forget so often. I am that kid in the car laughing, not a care in the world. Which is good sometimes to be able to put circumstances behind us. At first I felt guilty about my trivial bloggings, but am reminded that humor and laughter is a joy that should be shared.

But today all laughter aside, sometimes we need to feel others' pain. And on that note, with empathy - not sympathy.

The devastation in Haiti and Chili have already impacted me so much I haven't even been able to touch on them in this blog. It's just too much for words sometimes.

This week I have been reminded of these thoughts by a precious little girl's fight for life. By what Layla Grace's family is going through. My problems are so small. I am abundantly blessed. Please take a moment to visit her blog. Pray for Layla Grace and her family and squeeze your family tight tonight.