You would think
… that after three babies we would have purchased a swing. Well, there were lots of reasons we never did, but we have quickly realized this time around that a swing is a verrrrry nice piece of equipment 
to have when you have two hungry toddlers, or you need somewhere to put baby down while tending to an all-of-a-sudden urgent task! The pack ‘n play and an old-fashioned floor quilt are still my favorite options, but it’s nice to have the swing because – well, you know, it swings!
I think I’m going to start calling my blog “Goodwill like a medicine.” I found this Graco infant swing (with 6 speeds and 15 songs!) in fantastic shape there for $3.99. Wow! You can’t get much better than that. I took the winne-the-pooh cushion off and whipped up a little one that matched our decor. I used a fun red gingham waverly remnant and binded it around with some sage velvet. I know if my dad were to read this, he would immediately poke fun at me and say, “So, I guess you’re taking the winne-the-pooh cushion back to Goodwill, huh?” Ha Ha ha – all I have to say is, “One day my family will convert!”
Too bad it’s midnight because all it needs now is an adorable baby inside. No, please wait! I take that back – I promise it can wait until morning! Today was a great day at home. I am really enjoying the sweet company of my kids as they help me work in the mornings and we read and play after naps in the afternoon. 
I still struggle daily with whining, arguing, and anger (me, or the kids, you ask?! ha), but I know God wants me to make these vital issues of prayer. By God’s grace I have finally found a nice, efficient schedule that fits our family. It took me several weeks after Meredith’s birth to lay it out, but thankfully it has been working for a couple of months now. Meredith is growing so much, and we have instant entertainment and laughter as we watch her try to grab toys and scoot across the floor. Around 4:30 to 5:30 is so much fun for me because I know they are thinking, “Daddy comes home soon!” We love to hear Eric’s diesel car drive up in the driveway and hide from him when he walks in the door from work. (Steven usually gives us away because he can’t wait to see his daddy.) Today I tried a new recipe sent to me by my midwife — stuffed green peppers in the crockpot – yum. They go well with mashed potatoes. Lydia helped me prepare them, and we called them “pepper houses.” 
After dinner I ran some errands, and this is what Eric captured while I was gone:
He dressed them and did the photo-shoot himself. Isn’t he great?! I will use this sidenote to sincerely praise my husband because he absolutely, totally, 110% LOVES being a dad. He just can’t get enough of our kids. He truly believes that children are a blessing, and I know that he loves them so much. He goes way beyond what some people expect a father to do/be, and I just love that about him. I also love the fact that tomorrow morning he’ll probably be taking a bag with a Pooh cushion in it to Goodwill. He He He
Manspeak: When women cook
This is a humorous glance into the female perspective vs. male perspective of preparing a meal for guests. I heartily agree!
Women Aren’t Men:
http://manspeak.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/women-arent-men/
Getting into Heaven
This isn’t about how to get to heaven – well, hopefully my whole blog kind of explains that. I’ll give you a big hint – JESUS CHRIST!
I’d like to chew over my present journey through Alcorn’s book: Heaven. The small group we have at our home on Sunday evenings is three weeks into our study together. Each week the book and discussion intices me more. I think every Christian should read this book – seriously! It’s rather thick (475 pages!) but oh, so worth it.
Before I share, though, I just have to show you a picture of Steven’s hair today.
Check out that form! We were looking at some couches in a furniture store, and everything he sat on made his hair look like this, quite to the amusement of everyone in there. One sales rep said he wished he could do that with his hair. He was bald, though. I didn’t know if he was joking or not. Ummm, nervous laughter.
Anyway. I thought you’d like that. He’s our little goofball.
Back to heaven. Like I said, it’s a must-read. I shall ditto the quote on the front cover, which states, “Other than the Bible itself, this may well be the single most life-changing book you’ll ever read” (Stu Weber). I don’t know yet if this book will change me as much as Piper’s Desiring God, but I’m certain it has already made quite a substantial impact.
Interruption again — I just got the funniest phone call. It’s late Friday night, Eric is at the grocery store, and the guy on the phone asked me to answer some questions for a survey about television viewing. I said, “Sorry, but we don’t watch television.” I tried to cut him off, but he said, “Oh, really? Well, wait a minute. You can still help me. May I send you a book about television viewing for you to read?” (What?!) I just said no thanks and ended it. Does anyone else think that is so funny? I mean, if you like to read books more than watch tv, why would you want to read about watching tv? That seems kind of tautological to me. Haha! That makes me laugh.
I’m sorry. Is anyone getting annoyed by this post? I might be getting annoyed. I guess I should write about what I sat down to write. This book – it’s so great! There are so many concepts that I have read that have really made me think about my misperceptions and skewed thoughts about eternity with God, but I’ll just share a few. I am very appreciative of the author’s conversational tone in the book and how he makes you feel like your questions about heaven are important, not stupid. First of all, Alcorn makes the important distinction between the intermediate heaven and the new heavens and new earth. This is really important. Admittedly I’ve never really thought about the difference. When referring to the intermediate heaven, Alcorn discusses about the place where Christians go (after they die but before the second coming of Jesus Christ). After Jesus returns to earth and the Final judgment occurs in the future, there will be a new earth and a new heaven, which we will inhabit with God forever. Many times we say “heaven,” but we aren’t specific, and that can cause a lot of confusion for us. According to scripture the new heavens and earth will be a physical place, and we will have resurrected bodies. The intermediate heaven/present heaven (where all of our loved ones are now who believed in Jesus Christ while living on earth) may or may not be a physical place, but most likely, it is physical and its people are physical. Think of the story of Lazarus and the rich man, the Revelation vision (Rev. 6) of the robed martyrs crying out for God for the justice of their blood, Jesus telling the thief on the cross that he will be with him today in paradise, Moses and Elijah recognizably appearing with Christ at the Transfiguration . . . The New Earth/eternal heaven will be our permanent relocation, and it’s going to be AWESOME. There is much, much more about this, but I don’t want to ruin it for you if you’re going to read it!
Second, I think most of us have the hidden “fear” that heaven might be boring, especially if we haven’t taken much time to study or ponder the subject. I remember going through a phase when I was a teenager in which I was scared of the thought of heaven. No one would have guessed that I would have felt these things beneath my smiling, evangelistic face, but I did. Ironically (yeah, right) that’s when I remember certain sins having a stronger grip on me. (Any child of God knows Satan doesn’t want us to be heavenly-minded, much less excited about going there!) Anyway, I cried when I read this for the first time (and cried again last week when Eric read it out loud to our group because he choked up – I knew he was thinking of his Papa and Nanny):
Think of friends of family members who loved Jesus and are with him now. Picture them with you, walking together in this place. All of you have powerful bodies, stronger than those of an Olympic decathlete. You are laughing, playing, talking, and reminiscing. You reach up to a tree to pick an apple or orange. You take a bite. It’s so sweet that it’s startling. You’ve never tasted anything so good. Now you see someone coming toward you. It’s Jesus, with a big smile on his face. You fall to your knees in worship. He pulls you up and embraces you [I have dreamed about this!] At last, you’re with the person you were made for, in the place you were made to be. Everywhere you go there will be new people and places to enjoy, new things to discover. What’s that you smell? A feast. A party’s ahead. And you’re invited. There’s exploration and work to be done – and you can’t wait to get started . . .”
But doesn’t the Bible say “no eye has seen, no ear has heard?” How can we know what’s ahead for us in heaven? Isn’t it wrong to make statements about some place where we have never been? I am conviced and agree with Alcorn – “No!” There is so much that God tells us about this wonderful place, and we can learn if we just take the time to study. This changes so much for me. It keeps me joyful, expectant, and confident. It gives me the assurance of my hope. This hope is with me – whether I’m lying down, changing a diaper, loving my family, or giving instruction. It spurs me on waaaay past legalism or apathy.
I’m so glad I found this book. It’s just what I needed to help me digest these thoughts about where this gal is going someday. I’m sure I’ll be writing about it more in the future – after all I’m only on page 93!
$800.00
Well, Alyssa was the closest on the guessing . . .
The other night Eric came in and sat down at the dinner table, and he said, “You want to know how I’ve saved us $800.00?” Of course I was interested. On New Year’s he told me that he had made a resolution to drink only water in 2007. It kind of shocked me because I know how much he LOVES his sweet tea and lemonade. Not that I don’t think he can do it, but you know. He’s a big guy, and he loves his food and beverage We usually buy a gallon of tea from Publix each week and sometimes a gallon of their lemonade to have with dinner. He loves those made at Publix. We usually eat out once or twice a week, and he eats out most days at work for lunch, which means he’s buying tea with his meals. Anyway, he just smiled and said, “By eliminating tea or other drinks and only drinking water, I have calculated that I’m saving us around $800.00 this year.”
Wow. If you think about it, that’s A LOT of money for just drinks! And I guess because the rest of our family drinks only water, we might be saving $1600-$2,000.00 this year! It kind of makes me upset to know how much restaurants will rip you off just for a glass of tea or Coke.
So, that’s my ChaaChing story. Hope it didn’t disappoint! It sho’ don’t disapoint me! Yay for my husband!
ChaaCHING
EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS!
Anyone want to guess what I’m talking about?
I’ll keep you in suspense until my next post . . . Happy guessing!
1 Corinthians 10:31 – “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.”
(I was getting annoyed seeing the multi-colored banshee banner, so I up and changed it again.)
What a great trip
Doesn’t it feel great to get home from a wonderful trip? The kids are snuggled into their beds, and I’m waiting on some wet clothes to dry before turning in myself. It seemed to take forever to get back because nine+ hours is a long time to be in a van with three small children, but the kiddos rode relatively well considering the circumstances. Lydia didn’t sleep much this weekend due to her nonstop excitement, but I’m sure she’ll find a way to catch up (or her mommy will find a way)!
God is so gracious to give a person one or two close friends in life. It is true that “you have to be a friend to have a friend,” but I feel like God has amply blessed me with relationships with outstanding Christian women in my young adulthood. I am so thankful. Emily and I were talking this weekend about how we can’t really remember “when” we “became close friends.” There’s this point where the intensity of a friendship grows if it is truly a good friendship, and usually you can’t mark that point in time. It’s neat to think about. Anyway, I am so blessed to know Emily. She is one of those people who always cheers you up and reminds you of the goodness of God in all situations. She is genuine, and she is dependable. It was great to physically see her again and meet her new baby Caroline. We were happy to see our friends and former church family, go to a homecoming basketball game, and be so finely treated to a super “Cindy G. lunch” at her house with my friends Tammy and Kristie. Oh, it was so great to see them! Kristie even taught me the basics of knitting on Friday afternoon! Wow. It was fun. I knitted a little blanket on the way home (so the ride wasn’t so bad for me)! Our friends the Zimmermans were gracious to let us invade their beautiful home for 3 days. We joined the busyness of their weekend, and I got to sit with Mrs. Bessie and eat her homemade cookies while she read poetry to Meredith and me on the couch! It was truly wonderful for us to see and visit with our friends, and I’m so glad we were able to do this.
Well I guess I better get some sleep, so I won’t be tired during church tomorrow. I hope you can smile as you read this and think of how God has blessed you with friendships. Don’t take them for granted because God has given them to you!
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