A prayer

"O merciful God, be Thou unto me

A strong Tower of defense,

I humbly entreat Thee.

Give me grace to await Thy leisure,

And patiently to bear What Thou doest unto me;

Nothing doubting or mistrusting

Thy goodness towards me;

For Thou knowest what is good for me

Better than I do.

Therefore do with me in all things

What Thou wilt;

Only arm me, I beseech Thee,

With Thine armor,

That I may stand fast;

Above all things taking to me

The shield of faith;

Praying always that I may

Refer myself wholly to Thy will,

Abiding Thy pleasure, and comforting myself

In those troubles which it shall please Thee

To send me, seeing such troubles are

Profitable for me; and I am

Assuredly persuaded that all Thou doest

Cannot but be well; and unto Thee

Be all honor and glory. 

Amen."

Lady Jane Grey

Remember

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee....."


 "Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God...."


"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God...."


"Remember the LORD..."


"Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold."


"I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old."


"If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth..."


"Remember the word that I said unto you..."


"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast..."

(verses from Deuteronomy 8, Nehemiah 4, Job 36, Psalms 77,137, John 15, and Revelation 3)

"....Our memories need this help.....that we may 'remember the way which the Lord our God has led us in the wilderness.'"

Matthew Henry

Thoughts

Jeremiah 35 was my Bible reading this morning on the plan John and I are reading through. I don't know how many times I've read the chapter, but today was the first time I really took notice of what it had say. The Lord punished people for obeying their father instead of obeying him. Years ago when my conscience bothered me about things I would convince myself I was ok because I was obeying God's command to obey my parents.
Now I understand that I love and honor my parents best by obeying God and honoring Him. I love my husband and children best by loving God first.
And just for the record I am not advocating rebellious behavior. All situations are different, but a choice to disobey your authority and follow God should be done with much prayer, and hopefully godly counsel.

Another thing on my mind that I am thankful for. This probably sounds silly, but I was afraid that by going to a church that was less reformed in practice that I would not be fed. I was completely wrong in that fear, nothing is further from the truth and we have been fed, encouraged, and helped very much by the preaching we have sat under. And I also wondered if we would be able to find a church with good pastoral care who would even have shepherding visits. It's no exaggeration for me to say that the best pastoral care I have received has been where we worship now. 

"Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness."

Psalm 107:8-9

Caroline and Luke said

Luke is very efficient with his words. When told to say, "thank you," he replies, "Thankum."
His personal combination of thanks, and you're welcome!

We had someone out last night to spray bees and aside from Caroline being terrified by the bee outfit, she was a little confused. When he left, "So he doesn't have to kill Dukie, Mama?"
Me, "No, honey!"
Poor Luke was stung a few days ago and I guess she misunderstood the whole thing.

Luke now sort of has his own version of questions at family worship.
"Luke, who made you?"
'God!!!"
"Good job! What else did God make?"
"EVERYTHING!!!" For some reason we could never get him to say, all things. So you go with the the flow of a toddler learning to talk and edit the answer a little :-)
"Why did God make you and everything?"
"Own gwory!"
It's very cute :-) and he's very pleased with himself.
 BTW Caroline is now working on catechism question 8, and is memorizing Psalm 23 and 67. She has an amazing memory!

July days

Caroline is tired this morning so I told her to rest.....and this cuteness happened.

What happens when you have a big sister. poor Luke.

Me.

Luke can do the stairs by himself now.

Mama needed a hug.

He thinks it is funny to pretend to be asleep.

Breakfast for dinner.

Smoked beef, corn, and twice baked potatoes.

Another dinner, layered salad, and hot pizza dip.

Making beer and wine.

I braided Caroline's hair.

Puzzles from Goodwill!

Duke wants to be a big boy and sit in his own seat at church!

Grilled chicken and veggie pizza.

A nice older man at church gives our kids smarties every week.

Attending the evening service at church is not real practical in this season of life with the distance, being out well past little ones bedtimes, etc. But after we get the kids down for the night John and I listen to the evening sermon and then usually talk about it. Pastor Hartley is going through the book of Ruth now which is probably my second favorite book in the Bible. It's been very good and helpful! And I feel so encouraged that I'm in a season again where I can sit and listen through a whole sermon and get something out of it. The last couple years church for me has been a blur of morning sickness, migraines, and nursing babies missing naps. Thankful for my babies and thankful for sermon audio :-) And thankful to once again have the energy, inclination, and desire to sit and listen to sermons. All those things are blessings!

We moved all the furniture and cleaned the hardwood floors.

John and I grilled Greek pizza. SO good!

Everybody wants a piece of Mama. And that folks is reason 243 why Mama gets tired.

These toads in the window well have produced a lot of entertainment for the kids.

My latest no bake summer dessert recipe I tried. Soooo good!

Helping Daddy make burgers.

The kids were very quiet so I went to check on them - and found this.

We took the kids to the free, miniature, air conditioned "zoo" this evening, aka PetSmart. They had a wonderful time and didn't want to leave. Great entertainment for littles when it is hot out!

"Mama, will you play with me?"
A game that involves a dinosaur eating a rabbit, lol.

Coloring with his treasures close by, his egg, and Thumper. The face on the right is the result of tasting a crayon, "It's icky!"

So the other day when we were at Menards John got these shelves to put in the unfinished storage room in the basement. I'm so excited because instead of having to dig through a pile of boxes, now all my boxes of kids clothes are on the shelves and easily accessible. At this point I'm saving all the kids' clothes, and I have a lot of things for Luke to grow into from his brother and cousins. Caroline has a big dresser so I buy ahead for her when I see a deal, or something I like. I just have a grow into drawer and section of the closet for her. So that's my not terribly pretty clothes storage system for now.

Caroline mixed up sweet and sour sauce for tonight's stir fry. "It smells good, Mama!"

We got Hunter's school registration in the mail and I could not believe the dress code was skirts at mid thigh! It always used to be knee length.

Blueberry cheesecake for National cheesecake day!

New Mirror

I was happy to find this mirror for $9.99 at Aldi last week. I've wanted a full length mirror for our for quite awhile now. It's hanging on the closet door and since we have a lot of white in our room it works quite well.

Friday Fish

On Friday afternoon John asked me if I wanted to go out for fish. It had been a long time since we had done that, so of course I said, yes :-)

Dukie had a lot of fun and loved his dinner!

Caroline also ate very well!