The books are packed, oh, and we should probably bring some other stuff, too...

We're going on vacation for the week!! It couldn't come at a better time for our family!

I hope to post some pictures, etc. from there, but who knows, I may be having too much fun relaxing to think about blogging.

Tears

at what I read on the Desiring God page today. Thank you, Shawnda, for linking to these.

Poem for Felicity

What I Said at my Granddaughter's Funeral

Abraham and Molly Piper's daughter was stillborn a day before her due date.

Happy (belated) Birthday, Jonathan!

On Sunday afternoon we celebrated Jonathan turning two.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jonathan. We love you so much!

After finishing his cake on his first birthday

A few hours old

My first day on the job as Mom of four, a role I have grown to love

An Even Better Report from the Doctor

We reviewed the results of my CT scan this afternoon with the urologist, and he stated that it was his suspicion that I had passed a stone just before I saw him last week. I have felt better and better each day since then, and my only remaining symptom is a bit of stiffness in my right side. All my tests were clear today!

I do have four stones in my kidneys, but they are not moving (which means they don't hurt), and they are quite small (1 mm or less).

So praise the Lord! I can't really imagine a better outcome! Thank you for praying for me.

One of the nicest things was that I woke up yesterday morning feeling almost completely normal. I could enjoy a nice day with friends celebrating Jonathan's birthday (more on that coming soon!).

It's been ten years

since one of my favorite Christian artists went home to be with Jesus.

Remembering Rich Mullins by Andrew Peterson

Good Report from the Doctor

After my visit to the doctor today, it is his suspicion that I have kidney stones again. I view this as a good report because it is easier for me to swallow than a chronic condition. Although it's an incredibly painful thing to pass a kidney stone, at least it ends at some point!

They sent me right over to the hospital (next door) for a CT scan, and I'll see the results of that on Monday. They also sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin (yikes).

As I was sitting in the waiting area for the CT scan, I was thinking about how I am feeling right now. Strangely, it feels remarkably akin to the last month of pregnancy. I am uncomfortable (but not in pain) all the time through the midsection, I have to get up to use the bathroom at night, and I know that there is a future, very painful, event awaiting me. Only this time, I will have something the size of a peppercorn to show for my efforts instead of a person. A slight letdown. :-)

Thank you for praying for me. As Charles Spurgeon said, you can do me "no greater kindness."

Mothers of the Wise and Good

Mrs. Martha Ramsey and her Children

This chapter is full of praise for Mrs. Ramsey and her early interest in all things related to the godly upbringing of her children. Soon after her children were born, she began reading up on educational theory to better understand how to prepare them for life. She encouraged time outdoors to give them "a healthy constitution," and to encourage their spiritual development,
"...they were taught to subject their passions to the control of reason and religion -- to subdue their tempers -- to practice self-denial -- to endure disappointment, and to resist temptations to pleasure; about all, her children were the subject of prayer, even before they saw the light."

She daily read Scripture to them, and when it was necessary, applied the rule of Scripture to their hearts in loving discipline. As the children grew, she still persisted in directing and advising them, as shown in this excerpt from a letter to her son, who was away at college:

We ought, dear child, to take great pains to understand our errors; we have, every one, by nature, some secret error, some constitutional defect or vice. In childhood, the advice or authority of parents may restrain it; still it is there. As we grow older, we must watch for ourselves, restrain ourselves -- look up to God for help, while we exercise such acts of self-denial as shall break the bias, and keep it from producing a vicious habit, which alas! may become too strong for us and be our curse and our master as long as we live. Persons about your time of life are apt to think themselves very wise, and to pay very slender attention to the voice of their superiors: this is a very great error; as by such conducts, they not only deprive themselves of the experience of those older and wiser than themselves, but they appear, and really are, very unlovely in their tempers to those who reprove or advise them, whether parents or others.... May God give you wisdom to understand your errors, and a manly resolution to resist every temptation to evil; make you lovely in your temper, diligent in the pursuits of useful science, and enable you, by conciliatory and engaging manners, to make friends to yourself among the wise and good, wherever you go.

What a wonderful prayer for us as mothers to remember to pray for our children (and for ourselves!): a soft heart towards sin, a welcoming attitude towards those who seek to correct us -- especially those older and wiser than us, and "friends...among the wise and good, wherever [they] go."

In watching the interactions of many mothers and children today, I often feel saddened by young parents' attempts to accommodate their children's every whim. Granted, we should respect our children's wishes so long as their are right and beneficial to the child (and the larger family); however, a child who is used to (even in toddlerhood) getting everything they ask for is destined to miss that acquisition of self-denial and endurance in the face of disappointment that is so valuable later in life.

I think strangers sometimes take me as unkind when I am so comfortable in saying "no" to my children, especially when they are causing a scene. I admit, I feel little guilt in doing so most of the time, because I had, early in my motherhood, the benefit of older mothers around me who encouraged me to foster self-denial and attention to one's heart in our children. It is precisely those moments when our children are "causing a scene" that we must give due attention to their hearts, because the "scene" is a demonstration of an attachment that perhaps is too deeply rooted in their young hearts. As mothers we can understand this better than those around us, and address the child with appropriate firmness and yet with sympathy, knowing that we, too, are susceptible to attachment to inappropriate goals (I could go on and on here...a discussion of vanity, anyone?). It's just that mothers usually have better manners during their temper tantrums. :-)

Translation: temper tantrums = idolatry; in moms and kids.

Have you had a temper tantrum lately?

How bizarre

Online couple cheated with each other

Remember this happening in a song? Sing along with me...

"If you like Pina Coladas, and gettin' caught in the rain...."

Of course, the song had a happier ending. Instead of divorcing, the couple realized that the other person was exactly what they had been looking for all along.

HT: Challies

Thank you

...for your prayers. I had a sweet night of sleep last night: about seven and a half hours, which is newsworthy around here, especially when David is away. I awoke feeling refreshed, ready to face the day. Thanks to God for His kindness!

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8

Health update

I'm feeling conflicted even writing this post, because I feel as though I've burdened you readers with enough blow-by-blow health trials! But I need your prayers right now.

Over the last two weeks, I have had symptoms of a UTI. Antibiotics seem to address it temporarily, but as soon as I'm off the antibiotics, the symptoms return. In the world of internet research, I have found many frightening options that could be causing these symptoms.

My GP has referred me to a urologist, who I will see on Friday afternoon.

I covet your prayers in the following ways:

• healing of all sickness
• removal of fear...that I might be able to meditate on what is instead of what might be; that I would not despair; that I would understand that this, too, is God's best for me
  
• wisdom for myself, David, and the doctors with treatment options
  
• that David would be able to come home Thursday (he is currently in NH) so he can attend my appointment with me
• good sleep. I haven't had this in weeks. Granted, I'm used to it, but it's more fun when it's a baby that's causing it.

Please, please pray! I am praying that this would be another praise-filled story, much like the one that Shawnda wrote about her daughter Keziah.

Thank you!

Jonathan and Emma, age two

Scenes from the backyard

I am still dominating Fat Beast (click here for the back story). That's a titmouse and a goldfinch on the feeder.

Bibliophiles unite

Cameron and Ben got their own library cards last week. It was very exciting!

Here's a tour of some of the world's most beautiful libraries.

Who else...

loved "The Wonder Years"?

This post about it got me all sad and wistful.
Am I showing my age/nerd status?

Mothers of the Wise and Good

The Mother of Lucretia and Margaret Davidson


Mrs. Margaret Davidson was married to a physician, Dr. Oliver Davidson. She bore nine children, seven of whom died young, and she herself suffered repeated bouts of illness.

Her two most notable children are Lucretia and Margaret Davidson, both noted American poets who died before the age of 18. Their mother, a writer in her own right, is credited with their development as young ladies of distinction.

"...while possessing existence on terms of frequent pain and suffering, this devoted mother made her sick-bed a hallowed shrine, where her children could receive constant instruction in piety and patience, both by precept and example."

Both of the girls possessed an uncommon genius when it came to the written word. Lucretia taught herself to write and by age six was composing poems; at age nine, "elegant poems full of fine thoughts, finely expressed, abounding in affection, moral purity and religious feeling...." After her death at 16 from tuberculosis, she was memorialized by Catherine Sedgewick and Edgar Allen Poe.

Margaret Davidson only two and a half when Lucretia died, yet she bore many similarities to her older sister. The family thought that to protect her mind would be to protect her body from a fate similar to Lucretia's, so they hid all tools of learning from her and put off her reading instruction until later in her childhood. Nevertheless, Margaret took it upon herself to learn and compose poetry that was alike in kind to her sister's. She also died of tuberculosis in her teens, and was memorialized by Washington Irving.

Nothing was more beautiful in the character of Mrs. Davidson, than the resignation she evinced when successively bereaved, after long years of anxiety, of these extraordinary children. To lose such daughters was a more than ordinary trial...yet, though she mourned her bereavement with all the tenderness of a fond mother, she was enabled to look up to her heavenly Father with the piety of a Christian, and to acquiesce in His wise arrangements without a murmur, though with many tears.

Again, a reminder to us to hold our children loosely. They are ours for a time only, and ours for a specific purpose. Ultimately, their lives are to bring God glory; whether that be in life or in death, it is our duty to bless the One who "giveth..and taketh away." Mrs. Davidson certainly made the most of the short time that she was given with her own children, despite challenges of poor health and constant sorrow over the death of other children.

Portraits of American Women Writers: Mrs. Margaret Davidson
Portraits of American Women Writers: Lucretia Davidson
Portraits of American Women Writers: Margaret Davidson

Future Rock Star

I kind of rain on his parade at the end, but the first time he sang it, it was much longer...

Three Things I Actually Said Today.

1. "Don't swing golf clubs at people. Use a sword instead."
2. "A floppy sword is better than no sword, right?"
3. "Stop eating money."

Tolle Lege

Albert Mohler exhorts us to "Take up and read"!

For the sake of accountability, here's what I'm reading right now:

Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper
The Call by Os Guinness
A Woman's Call to Prayer by Elizabeth George

In my Bible reading, I'm working through the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan with David, alongside For the Love of God by D.A. Carson (I'm reading vol. II; David is reading vol. I). It has been really wonderful to be at the same place in the Bible as David is. We talk a lot more about what we're reading when it's so easy to say, "hey, did you see that part where...".

I also have a couple of books that I read in from time to time, like Mothers of the Wise and Good (Fridays), and The Simple Life: Devotional Thoughts from Amish Country (which is disappointingly fluffy, but it inspires me towards simplicity and if all else fails, there's a recipe at the end of every chapter).

What are you reading?

Look, a video!

I haven't been posting many videos lately because our point 'n shoot that served as our video camera finally up and died. But we recently bought a digital camcorder, so here is the first of many more, I hope...

Monday was my Dad's 60th birthday, and we called him at breakfast to sing to him. Here's one of our rehearsals :-)




Sorry about the Raisin Bran faces.

Remember

Three 9/11s we need to know by John Piper

One of the perks

of homeschool is that you can do your science and artwork outside...

It's September 1st

I know it's before Labor Day, I know we haven't had the Autumnal Equinox yet, but dang it -- I am so sick of summer.

So that is why, almost in protest of the heat outside, I went and hung this sign on the front door this morning. In my pajamas.

To be fair, it's been a bit cooler here the last few days. Low nineties instead of high nineties. And there's been some rain. The other night as the rain fell on the roof, David actually said, "what's that noise?".

This summer has seemed like one of the longest of my life...and I am ready for a change of seasons!