Hi!

This week has been interesting so far.  (And it's only Thursday.)  I don't think a single. day. has gone the way I planned.  No, it's not the crazy-busy kind of week...just the kind where nothing goes quite the way you expect.

Flexibility.

...God knows how much growing I need to do there, and He gives me plenty of times to practice.  I like that.

No, really I do.  I mean, I might not like my plans being rearranged and or things being out of my control, but I'm grateful for the fact that God knows what I need and chooses to give me that over what I want.



He's so good.



He answers prayer in such unexpected ways sometimes.

I knew this week was going to be busy, and over the weekend, my prayers were largely along the lines of, "...and keep me from going insane..."

I wanted time for the important.  Time to be a blessing to others.  Time to be close to Him.

It's funny how He answered my prayers...by completely changing the week around.

Perhaps I should expect that by now, yes?

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I love His attention to details.

I love the beauty He pours into our lives.

I love how perfect everything He does is.

I love that He loves us so much more than we can imagine.





I was reading Proverbs 31 this morning, and can I just say I'm super thankful to know ladies like that.

"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised."

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It was her birthday -



- good reason to celebrate.





Family celebrations wouldn't be the same without them



Smoothie moustache...

Me: Elijah, can I take your picture?

E: Yes.

[After taking the picture] Me: Are you going to wipe your moustache off now?

E: No.

LOL!



After he finished his piece of cake with rather surprising speed, we asked if he wanted another.

"No, I've had enough sugar," he replied.

Well, then!



Tephra was outside after dark and he said she was looking at the moon to make a wish.

"I don't think Tephra knows what 'making a wish' is," I laughed.

"She's making a wish for lots of bones," he answered confidently.

Maybe not such a long shot, after all.



Merry has this endearing way of sitting right next to - or more accurately against - you.  So sweet.





His new song is "People! people! Pizza! pizza!" ("Be bold! be bold!  Be strong! be strong! For the Lord your God is with you..." I don't know how "be strong" became "pizza".  Hee, hee!)



I am, I will admit, quite hopelessly in love with them...

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Just experimenting.  :)





I've decided I really do like the white cosmos so much better than the purple ones.  I'm not sure if it's just because we don't have as many, or perhaps it's because the white are pretty striking against the green.

Anyway, for what that's worth...

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Projects is my middle name.  No, wait; it's Neat Freak.  Or maybe it's Coffee.  I lose track.



A new project is in the works: a patchwork lap-sized quilt from all these wonderfully warm and quaint homespuns.  They have a charm all their own.

This is the first patchwork quilt I've started.  You know something?  I love random.

I also hate random.

I love the spontaneity of random.  I love how random doesn't have to be perfect.

I hate how random isn't perfect.  (If you're confused, don't worry.  I do a mighty fine job of confusing myself sometimes, too.)

And that spontaneous look?  Ugh.  It actually takes me a lot of time (thought?) to achieve that.  Which kind of makes things sound un-random.

Maybe I should have just thrown all the squares up in the air and let them land where they would...that would have been random and spontaneous, huh?

Anyway...



Life looks so interesting from the vantage point of the family room floor!



So does a cosmos with every other petal missing.

Or is it just me?



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Snatches from a few songs that have been running through my head this week -

"All I know is I'm not home yet, this is not where I belong.  Take the world but give me Jesus, this is not where I belong..."

"Let the weak say 'I am strong', let the poor say 'I am rich', let the blind say 'I can see'; it's what the Lord has done in me..."

"This is my prayer in my hunger and need - my God is the God who provides..."

It's not.

It is.

He is.




"Let's watch Him work miracles for you," she wrote last week.

She has been a beautiful encourager and pray-er.  It's wonderful how God brings people into our lives.

Kind of goes back to He knows what I need -

And He is always ready to be just that.



So long ~