My Grandson's Ten Month Pics...

I cannot believe my baby (grandson, actually) is ten months old now. ::sniff::




Cute, or what?

My Little Honey Pot

(Deep down, he's smiling. On the surface, home boy don't like the "lid" to his honey pot to be on toppa his head...)

There's nothing but pure sweetness in THIS honey pot.

Happy Hello-ween, y'all.

(That's what we do around here - Hello-ween. Fellow Harvester Wendy Cantrell, over at Hope Springs Blog, coined that phrase to describe what our church likes to do on Hello-ween, which is to stay home and meet our neighbors! So far, we've had one lone, tiny pirate come to our door...only to be roundly and loudly "attacked" by my daughter Sarah's itty bitty maltipoo, Amber.

This house is an epic fail for Hello-ween up to this point, but it is only 8 PM, so we shall see...)

Off to watch Terra Something-Or-Other on th' Tee Vee with my grown children...the Preacher comes home from Cambodia day after tomorrow!

Our Son is Coming Home Wednesday...

...and we take delight in him...

"Pick Yourself Up"

Nothing's impossible, I have found
For when my chin is on the ground
I pick myself up, dust myself off, start all over again!

Don't lose your confidence, if you slip
Be grateful for a pleasant trip
And pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again

Work like a soul inspired till the battle of the day is won.
You may be sick and tired, but you'll be a man, my son!
Don't you remember the famous men who had to fall to rise again?
They picked themselves up, dust themselves off, and started all over again!

Jet Ski Afternoon

Found this picture on my smartphone today. It makes me miss my Preacher. I snapped this last month - on a late afternoon when we decided to rent a jet ski! Note: it was not warm...it wasn't a cold day, but it wasn't warm, either. Silly couple that we are, we chose to do it anyway.

And. We. Loved. It. We got there almost at closing time - we were the last ones allowed to rent a jet ski that day. We tooled around for two hours, going up and down the Tennessee river.

I saluted Neyland Stadium as we jetted by it, because hope springs eternal in a Volunteer heart. Heaven knows, I need optimism. Two words:

Tusca-dang-loosa Ala-daggum-bama.

Such a great evening, this was. The best of all my favorite things - sunshine, river, downtown in my hometown, high speeds, and having to hold on tight to my Pastor.

Mexican Restaurant Man

My Preacher and I have a favorite Mexican restaurant.

We go to it alot. I'm just sayin'. We like it, and if I have to buy bigger pants in the future, I will blame that on La Fiesta.

On the outside wall of the restaurant is a mural. This mural has always been there, I see it each and every time I pass through the hallowed double glass doors. Last week, there was a small difference. Some person with a sense of humor did something...and I swear, I think of my small but happy band of readers when I see things like this, and I always grab the smartphone because I have to share it with you:

I hope you feel blessed and enriched by your visit to this blog today.

That is all.

A Water Tower Cozy - Stop The Madness!

I was in a craft store recently, browsing through a knitting magazine. I ran across a photo that so disturbed me, I brazenly grabbed my Droid and took a picture of the picture. I thought of all of you gentle readers, and felt you simply had to see...

This photo says it is not a fake. Someone, somewhere (God bless them) took the time to knit a water tower cozy - I assume by machine.

Stop the madness!

I refer you to my recent post "Top 5 Indicators You Might Have Too Much Time on Your Hands"...

...and I amend it, as of this moment, to "Top 6 Indicators". Number 6 is "When you find yourself with the slightest urge to knit a water tower cozy."

Facing Our Fear - Women Equipped to Love and Lead

We Girls So Rock!

Women feel the most inadequate in our relationships with other women, I think. Mothers and daughters, daughters and mothers, sisters, girlfriends...we women feel and fear our own falling short, we sense that we are not adequate for one another.

I look across the landscape of the body of Christ, and the topography is littered with the baggage of female friendship gone horribly wrong, and with the broken pieces of the hearts of mothers and daughters. It is time that judgment begin in the house of God, and that is not what you think.

Have you not heard? The house of God is the only safe place for judgment - because Christ carried our griefs and sorrows, He sits now on a throne of grace, beckoning to us to run to Him in our time of need. We can get our needs met by His satisfyingly durable lovingkindness, and then turn and freely give what we have freely received to our mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.

(...and FYI, when the Bible says, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" it is speaking of the afflictions and persecutions of this life, not of our position before God. Context, context! Salvation cannot be at the same time sure and unsure, secured by Christ, but subject to our inadequacy.)

Out there, in a world bereft of grace, you are written off for your inadequacy. At the throne of grace, you can find healing for every relationship. For what offense have you forsaken a friend? With what imperfection do you charge a mother? What daughter can bear up under the weight of propping up a mother's fragile sense of self? We must stop needing other daughters of Eve to be for us what only Christ can be.

Let us run to Him!

Every broken relationship, healed. Every loose thread, woven back into the tapestry. Every bond, strengthened. Every inadequacy, swallowed up in the vast overflowing overadequacy of the Finished Work of Christ.

Where you have fallen short in relationship, Christ can stand tall, as He stands strong to meet needs in others you cannot fill. Where others have fallen short towards you, Christ can stand tall, becoming your need-meeter. We can forgive others for their inadequacy, and we can forgive ourselves of the same.

Who can say she has been a perfectly adequate friend...sister...mother...daughter? That is much like saying, "Who can say she is without sin?"

Inadequacy is our lot in life until we are fully and finally changed to be just like Jesus. But the enemy of our soul has somehow made us fear facing up to the fact that we wound and are wounded. We hide in the bushes from each other because we are inadequate, fallen flesh, not yet glorified.


Come out, come out, wherever you are!


Come forgive, and be forgiven. Come begin again. Or again/again/again/again. If my mercies are new every morning, then yours are too. Who am I to withhold them from you?

When women naturally and freely nurture one another, releasing one another from our falling short, cheering one another on in this difficult journey of life, one in which even we the righteous are "scarcely saved" out of persecution and trouble...

...well, I think it will make an unbelieving, not-at-all saved watching world want to escape their judgment, and come be judged in The Father's House.

If God has declared me righteous, who can be against me? Certainly not you.

Face it...you just cannot be against me. I cannot be against you.

Looks like we are stuck with being for each other.

I'm so glad.