For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies; 

Lord of all, to thee we raise 
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,

of the day and of the night,

hill and vale, and tree and flower,

sun and moon, and stars of light;

Lord of all, to thee we raise 
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye, 
for the heart and mind's delight, 
for the mystic harmony, 
linking sense to sound and sight; 

Lord of all, to thee we raise 
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love, 
brother, sister, parent, child, 
friends on earth and friends above, 
for all gentle thoughts and mild; 

Lord of all, to thee we raise 
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For thy church, that evermore 
lifteth holy hands above, 
offering up on every shore 
her pure sacrifice of love; 

Lord of all, to thee we raise 
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For thyself, best Gift Divine, 
to the world so freely given, 
for that great, great love of thine, 
peace on earth, and joy in heaven:  

Lord of all, to thee we raise 
this our hymn of grateful praise.

The BIG 3-0!

Somebody, specifically, the love of my life, my better half, the string to my balloon, the breather of life to my crazy ideas, the listener to all my dreams, and the dreamer who dreams them with me, the most amazing man I have ever met in my whole life, who keeps pointing me to Jesus, and who keeps forgiving me, who I have more respect for than any other man on the face of this earth, is 30 today. 

When he kissed me goodbye this morning, I said, "You are thirty! You are thirty! We are getting old." And he smiled back at me and said, "We are getting old together." 

Yes, we are getting old together, and it is wonderful.

The birthday boy had a practice softball game last night. The children and I decided we wanted to surprise him with cupcakes at the game.

My little Betty Crocker whipped up approximately 50 cupcakes yesterday. We topped them with chocolate icing and big white sprinkles, arranged them on a giant tray, and loaded them and our largest cooler (filled with roughly 75 bottles of water) into the back of my car. We quickly cleaned up all evidence and while waiting for The Engineer's arrival, crossed our hearts and promised not to breath a WORD of the surprise to him.

Of course, Little Man could NOT contain himself. Though he didn't give away what the surprise was, he made it clear there was a surprise...involving candy. So I whipped out a hidden bag of twizzlers and acted like it was the great surprise, which brought on tears and adamant insistence from Little Man that "dat is NOT de supwise!" 

However, we did manage to surprise The Engineer. He didn't know what the surprise was until we arrived at the ball field. Success.

It was great fun. Sister passed out cupcakes and napkins and water to everyone who would accept, including a few strangers.

Meanwhile, the men played ball and the children ran around having splendid adventures of the most unique type. Little Man had terrific plans to wear his vest, and only his vest. However, when I saw the vest hit a bit high and revealed belly button and a whole lotta skin, much to his chagrin, I insisted he wear the shirt, too.

The toddlers enjoyed the cupcakes, perhaps, more than any other age group.

I couldn't get Little Bit to look up. She was far to preoccupied with picking up and eating every crumb off the ground.

Post cupcakes, she found a marvelous stash of sunflower shells beneath the bleachers. And put some in her mouth. 

When the game was over, the men gathered round and sang Happy Birthday to The Engineer. He was embarrassed and I think very thankful. Birthdays make me cry. The goodness of God in keeping us, protecting us, preserving us, and giving us this wonderful gift of life. A gift I so often take for granted. 

Dear Engineer, I love you with all my heart! You are a good man. I have never had such profound respect for any other man in all my life. I thank God for you and the wisdom He has given you. I pray He gives us many, many, many more years together. 

Psalm 34:3 "Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt His name together."

And now, birthday wishes from the chidlren:

From Sister: I hope you have a good day at work. I love you. I hope you get home faster than my bike. Happy Birthday, birthday boy! Bye!

From Little Man: Dad, can I please ride my bike when you get back home and I hope you have a good time while you're at work. Thank you Mommy and Daddy for my new bike. And thank you that Dad got to go to the softball game and thank you that my friend didn't have his cleats on 'cause I didn't have my cleats on and I wore my crocs, actually my flip flops. And thank you that Dad gave me that bike. Thank you that Mommy is still here and that everyday she is with me and Sister except when she goes to a baby shower. And I am eating a cup cake. Dear God, I hope my Dad doesn't get killed while he's at work from a shark or shark tooth. Or up in heaven yet. Amen. And thank you because he has teeth on his head. haaa haa haaaa! (big smile) (FYI, the bike was a Christmas gift from the grands and the great-grands...not mama and daddy.)

From Little Bit: Daaaaaa daaaaa!!!!!

Goodnight Moon

Well, first things first...I have finally entered the 21st century and as of last week, I have a "for real" cellular. Thus far we've had a prepaid for emergencies only. This new little baby is making life so much simpler. Especially texting. Oh My. 

Got this text from the in-laws. "You might be interested to know that a full moon like tonight won't reoccur for 18 years. It is at it's closest to the earth - hence at its largest. Can you take any pictures tonight? :)"

So The Engineer and I grabbed the camera and headed out in the front yard in our jammers...and I shot the moon.

And when I looked at the pictures - OH MY!!! I was gasping and going on and on, "Do you see this? I shot the moon and look at it. LOOK AT IT!" 

The Engineer was like, "What? Have you never seen a picture of the moon?"

"Well, yeah, but LOOK AT THIS!!! I mean, LOOK AT THIS!!! In our own front yard!!!"

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! 

You have set Your glory above the heavens. 

Out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, 

to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the MOON and the stars, 

which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, 

and the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

 and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; 

You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, 

the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! ~Psalm 8

I mean, really. God is awesome. AWESOME.

Rice

Today is more of life. L.I.F.E.

Baby Mouse floating in the dogs' water bowl.

Sinkfuls of dishes.

Spilled milk, splattered on the wall and floor.

Toys forgotten and left here and there.

Little Bit making her great escapes...

Fearless in her flimsy plastic explorer's hat.

My jeans, that happen to be my favorite and only pair, recently ripped in the knee.

And there is life here. Play. Imagination. Happy, healthy children.

And in my heart, I struggle not to grumble, as the cycle of cleaning and dirtying and cleaning again is endless.

And then I get another email from our dear missionary friends in Japan. And again, I am convicted. It isn't all about me. I am so inwardly focused. And yet, sometimes life is hard. But really. Correcting and disciplining, teaching, picking up, cleaning up, changing diapers, washing, and mending? This is life. I long to have a more thankful heart. To tackle the seemingly mundane with joy in my step. Today, I struggle.

The email had arrived in our inbox at 5:15am, at which time, our friend's husband and two other men were driving a 2 ton truck to one of the worst hit areas of Japan in order to deliver food, water, fuel, and other supplies. As I read the email aloud to Sister, my voice cracked and I was overcome with emotion. It is precious to read of the outpouring of the gospel into lives that are broken and hurting and to see the hands and feet of Christ in action. 

Our children desperately want to be a part of that. They want to love the Japanese people in word and deed. But how? We're so far away. And then we thought of something.

We had rice for dinner tonight. Water and rice. And what we would have spent on a meal, the children are sending to Japan. While that amount is quite tiny, our children have taken ownership and they felt it in a very small, but tangible way, and that is encouraging. 

With all the talk of Japan and the earthquake and tsunami, Little Man has become quite excited. In fact, he has packed his back pack with his jacket, lots of toy guns, and his sword and has terrific plans to protect us all and if necessary, to hop on "Firewheel Batman" (his bike's full name) and peddle "so past!" to escape in the event of a natural disaster in our area. (Leaving us all behind..."but dats okay. Daddy will be brave.")

Gettin' Old

Yesterday I loaded up a decent size bag of garbage and hauled her out to the big can.

I was on the phone while attending said task.

And when I went to heave the bag up and into the can...

I felt something pull in my back.

Almost instantly it hurt to breath and I could barely move my right arm.

Two Aleve, one heating pad, and nine hours of sleep later - I feel much better. Thank You, Lord!

After injuring myself, I asked The Engineer, "Isn't it only old people who get hurt like that? I mean, I was throwing away a bag of garbage!" He just grinned and nodded. 

Today we have spent the later part of the morning and early afternoon outside. It's a beautiful day. 

Little Bit likes to zoom head first into the dirt areas of our yard, and then can't zoom out. It does my heart good to see Little Man helpin' a sista out. 

I have been inspired by this series of posts here, to continue cleaning out and purging. Reading Sarah's thoughts on the necessity of one, maybe two Sunday outfits per child has me pumped. This is something I have long thought and pursued, and hearing it from another young mama has me encouraged. Little Man wears the same yellow suit to church every Sunday. It was The Engineer's when he was a boy. Personally, I think this greatly simplifies life. And right now, simple is quite good.

See what happens when I take my eyes off her for a second!? (lips and cheek)

And in closing, I came across a few old journal entries and these two quotes brought a smile to my face...

The first one is when we told Sister we were expecting Little Bit:

"It makes my heart twinkle and sparkle that God answered my prayer. It makes me want to have a parade!"

And the second is from an afternoon of playing "adoption."

"I mean, mother, why would you want to adopt us? Little Man smells bad."

Happy Wednesday Y'all!