The Fine Art of Sea Shelling

First, you find.

Then, you discuss.

Then you plan the next move.

It’s a complicated process that only mothers and daughters can understand.  There are nuances to shells that only little girls can see.  It all has to be done.  Finding, discussing, planning…this is where dreams are born…

Some Like it HOT!!

We are here in Florida, just outside Tampa.  It’s hot.  Not just a little hot, it’s way HOT.  The humidity is the killer here.  It’s so hot, the outdoor pool feels like bath water.  I didn’t try frying an egg, but i’m sure you could. 

We will be here, at Nana’s house, until Tuesday and then drive up to Orlando for a few days of Disney and a few nights of CEC Convocation.  I’m so looking forward to all of it.  I’m very much looking forward to seeing the global side of our church!  It was hard today to go to church and not be able to participate in the one thing that Christ wanted all of us to share:  His meal, communion.  We went to a Roman Catholic church.  Their ‘rules’ say we can’t participate.  Hard as I try, I just don’t understand it.  It was difficult to explain to Mary that because this wasn’t our church, that we couldn’t do what they did.  She didn’t understand.  She didn’t question me on it, but she clearly didn’t understand.  Quite frankly I don’t know what I would have told her if she did quizz me. 

Any suggestions?  How do you explain the ‘rules’ of church?

Animoto.com

A day at the beach video

Don’t it Figure

UPDATE:

Mary and I have both been to the doctor. It is suspected that what Mary has is viral. Her strep culture (the quick one) was negative but they are sending out the second ‘backup’ to be sure. The doctor did suggest Benedryl for congestion. Other than that she is good to go!

I am on antibiotic for an infection in my throat. The doctor also gave me a cough medicine with Codeine. I am assuming that my strep culture was also negative, since they never called me.

It’s still early, and there are a few days for us to get better before the big trip! Thanks for praying!!

Here we are days away from going to Disney World, and I’m sick!

I call the doctor to see if I can get in, and the only

appointment they have is at the exact same time that I have another appointment today!

I call to see if I can change the other appointment, and they don’t have anything that works!

This morning Mary informs me that she, too, has a sore throat!

The show ain’t over! We will not be defeated! This first family vacation is going to happen!

please pray…

Makes my heart cry…

Where ever I go
Far away and anywhere

Time after time you always shine
through dark of night calling after me

And where ever I climb
Far away and anywhere

You raise me high beyond the sky
through stormy night lifting me above

Venite Spiritu et emitte caelitus
Venite Spiritu et emitte caelitus
Venite Spiritu Venite Spiri tus

Whenever I cry
Far away and anywhere

You hear me call when shadows fall
your light of hope showing me the way

Libera, Michael Horncastle solo

On Friendship

I had a friend visit this past weekend.  She drove several hours in order to spend a few with me/us.

I’m so in awe of her courage and determination.  She had a rough start to her trip; her GPS sent her into an area she really didn’t want to go and it set her back a bit in terms of time.  But she pushed through and followed the guidance in spite of where she was.

I have seen her do that in other ways too.  Every time God sends her in a new direction, it’s a scary one.  He pushes her into places that she doesn’t want to go and for very good reasons.  But she follows His plan for her.  She is obedient to Him.  I have seen her wrestle with it, seen her struggle with the why’s and the what for’s, but every single time she takes the step into the unknown and comes out victorious.  She inspires me.

I’m so blessed to know her.  And even more blessed that she followed through and traveled to visit me.  I’m humbled to think that she chose to take a step into the unknown, yet again, and visit me even though we’ve only known each other a short time.

I want to be like her.  She is my hero.

Maryisims and other stuff

Mary is 7.  She still has some cute words.

When she first came to live here, she heard me telling Jingo very casually to put his hackles down.  I just kind of say it like…eh get over it!  Well, on another day, I heard her in the living room doing the same.  Only what she said was, “Jingo!  Put your freckles down!”

She gets tongue-tied a little sometimes.  Recently, she told me that S’Mores are too “Choclicky” for her.  This same week, we were discussing things, and I told her that, technically she …..  She responded that, infact, techlickly I…

When going to school and camp, there are things kids need to carry with them.  While everyone else has a backpack, she has a pack-pack.

We have nick-names for everyone.  Hers changes, but she hasn’t really changed what she calls the dogs.  She followed suit with us when it came to Spirit, who also goes by Toppy, or Topoliss (long story), or missy.  Patriot is just, well, Patriot…unless he’s Mr. Mr.  Then there is Jingo, who we sometimes call Jingo-bear, or at daycare he is Jingosaurous.  Mary, however, calls him Mr. Jingo Pants.

I love life with a 7 yr old!

4th of July

The Declaration of Independence

WHEN in the Course of human Events,
it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great- Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of the Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and the Convulsions within.
HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.
HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us;
FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rules into these Colonies:
FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
HE has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
HE has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATED OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Do YOU Have God in a Box?

I grew up thinking that God lived in church. We went every Sunday, visited for a couple hours and then went home. After changing out of our ‘church clothes’ life went on as it did every other day, except we had dinner at the dining room table rather than in the kitchen.

I had God in a box; the 4 walls of the building.

I don’t anymore. I know God is everywhere all the time. Even in cyberspace. Some of my most important changes in life have happened because of the internet, and ‘met on the net’ friends. Yep, He’s there too.

Do you have God in a box?