Family Picture - 2008

"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee."
Psalm 139:17-18

Thoughts of the Heart

Thoughts of the Heart
12/13/07

Little fingers, little feet;
So mischivous - Yet so sweet.
Lots of work and lots of joy:
To have and love my girls and boy!

Never quiet, never dull-
Every moment is so full.
Fun Adventures, some close calls;
Part of growing are the falls.

Constant learning how to be
A better Mother to my three.
I am thankful that each day,
Starts out fresh - as do they!

But of myself, this I plead,
That to Jesus I might lead-
My little ones - treasured so,
Not just by me - To HIM might go!

John's 7 Hours

Up until Sunday, we've been studying the book of Proverbs in our reading meetings. When I wasn't juggling one of our three little ones, I've managed to pick up a few very practical things. But since we'd reached a natural division in the book, it was decided to take up a less earthly subject for a little while before finishing up in Proverbs. The 'Upper Room Ministry' (John chapters 13-17)was selected and we only made it through a handful of verses before our hour was up. I was sitting on the edge of my chair waiting for the next sentence and then looked up at the clock to find that we were already seven minutes overtime!

Maybe it was because all three of my children were sleeping during meeting and I'd had a short power nap earlier, but I was able to focus and really enjoy what was shared. So much that I went home and listened to the recording of the meeting where I could jot down my notes! Anyway, good things should be shared. There was so much to be gathered in that one hour, but here's a beginning!

7 Hours in the Book of John

Ch 2:4 "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." - The hour that the Lord Jesus is speaking of here is the 'Hour of Pubic Manifestation before the world'. It's referring to the future when Christ will appear in all his power and glory.

Ch 4:23,24 "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This is the 'Hour of Christian Worship' and it's referring to the present - this time that Christians can worship their Lord.

Ch 5:25 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." This is also referring to the present. It's the 'Hour of His Grace toward sinners'. It's now while the gospel is being preached and souls have the chance to be saved.

Sadly, though this hour will come to an end. "Behold NOW is the accepted time; behold NOW is the day of salvation!" 2 Corinthians 6:2 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!" Acts 16:31 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9. Hm... 'looks like I got off topic here - back to the hours.

Ch 5:28,29 "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." This hour was the hardest for me to grasp into a nutshell. It's the 'Hour of His Supremacy over Death and the Grave' It's a future hour that partly takes place after the millennium.

Ch 7:30, 8:20 "Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come." "These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come." This hour is past. It's the 'Hour of His Sufferings at the hand of man'. It's referring to when the Lord Jesus was beaten and mocked and crucified by man - the race he willing died to save from a lost eternity.

Ch 12:27 "Now is my soul troubled: and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." This is the 'Hour of His Suffering at the Hand of God to make Atonement'. This hour too is past and because of it, there is a way for sinful creatures such as we to enter into the presence of a sinless and sin-hating God instead of spending an eternity suffering for the sins that we have committed. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6

Ch 13:1, 17:1 "Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify they Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:" This is the 'Hour of His Return to Glory', it's past and is referring to when the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven after he rose triumphant from the grave.

Well, I had more I was going to share, but this post is getting long. Maybe it will make it into another post later. Right now I've got to get our kids up from their naps so we can go pick Sir up from work!

Go-Go and Duh!

Last night I listened in as Sir said goodnight to our kids. As he pulled Dolly up onto his lap, she requested that he "say Goodnight to us boef?" So, instead of saying goodnight to them individually, Sir called PC so he could tell them both goodnight at the same time. Here's how the session went:

Sir: Ok! So I get to say goodnight to you both?
Dolly: Yesss!! (huge grin)
PC: Grunt (nods emphatically)
Sir: K, Dolly and Nathan -
Dolly looks at him like he must be mistaken)
Sir: What? This isn't Nathan? Oh! (then turning to PC) What's your name?
PC: Duh!
Sir: Ah! Duh!. K, Dolly and Duh, -
Dolly: No! I'm not Dolly! I'm Go-Go!!
Sir: Hm. Ok. Now, Go-Go and Duh, (Dolly giggles, PC grins) It's time for BED!
Dolly and PC cheer, Sir begins the bedtime list of forbidden things and I headed off to finish whatever I was working on a few minutes earlier.

After Sir sent the kids to me and I had put them in bed, he came out and said to me, "You really should choose more flattering names for your children than Go-Go and Duh!"

Fevers and Furnaces

This is really just a filler post because I'm feeling so guilty for not posting in so long. And the post that I've been working on is taking me a lot longer than I'd planned. Oh well, if I waited until I got caught up on life, this stuff would be so irrelevant that it'd be practically useless to post.

Sunday night I stayed up late and ended up getting to bed around midnight. Then promptly at 1am, Dolly woke up fussing. When I went in to check on her she was drenched in sweat and burning up. I took her temperature under her arm and after watching the numbers rise for what seemed like forever, came up with a reading of 102.7 From what I understand, you're supposed to add a degree and a half to figure out what the temp really is. I gave Dolly some Motrin, pulled her hair into a ponytail off her neck, and wiped her face down with a cool cloth. Thus settled, she went back to sleep and only woke up a few more times in the next two hours before succumbing to the power of fever-reducing meds. Thankfully, the fever didn't come back and the next day she was pretty much back to her old self.

Then last night just before we went to bed Sir mentioned that the house felt colder than usual and asked me if I'd turned the thermostat down. I hadn't intentionally touched it and told him so, but got up to check just in case I'd bumped it accidentally sometime during the day. It was set to where we normally have it, and just for good measure, I nudged it up a notch, checked on the kids again - gave each of them an extra blanket (their rooms were even colder than ours was) and then I headed to bed. For a change I had to fight for my double share of the blankets last night because Sir never warmed up. Even with my lions' share of blankets I was still freezing. I pulled Emma into bed to nurse twice too - that's two more times than she normally nurses at night, but she was fussy (probably because she was cold). I'd even tossed an extra blanket on our bed before I hopped in last night - not that it helped much.

Needless to say, this morning the house was even colder. Thinking back, I realized that the furnace didn't turn on a few minutes after I'd adjusted the thermostat last night, and the thermometer this morning prooved it. It was a shivering 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler than normal. At least the sun was shining this morning - I can only image how cold it would have been if it was raining today. I had a flashback memory of dressing for kindergarten in front of my mom's open oven door so I turned the oven on and every half hour I've opened the oven door for 10 minutes or however long I can stay guarding the oven before being needed somewhere else.

Sir's going to stop by to take a look at the furnace on his way over to Chasm's house where he'll work on our van a bit more. The water pump on the van died last week so we've been pouring water into it constantly to keep from overheating anytime we go somewhere. Yes, it was rather inconvenient to have to pull over in a blizzard to put water in your overheating vehicle! More on that project later. Anyway, if Sir can't fix the furnace tonight, he'll probably pick up some electric heaters. We've wanted to get a couple for a long time, and have just put it off since we didn't need to have extra heaters. Then we won't freeze while we look into fixing the furnace problem! Now I know why summertime is my favorite time of year!

So much for a short filler post. I must like to talk or something, because I can really get carried away if I give myself a minute. I was originally just killing time since PC was not being good and taking his nap. I've had to go in to his room a few times. Now naptime is almost over and I'll probably let him up. He's probably too cold to sleep. It's amazing how fast a room can cool down when the door is closed and the heat is on the other side!

Going Blond

Maybe it's all the napless days I've had recently. Maybe it's the four Comanche Indian* children running around my house these past few days. (Continued two days later) Maybe it's just me, but I found the following a little amusing:

On Thursday I had the car since Dolly needed to go see the orthopedic surgeon again and get another x-ray. Since we were already going to be in the imaging department, I decided to get my chest x-ray done at the same time (updates later - promise!).

Anyway, as the day drew to a close, I started waiting for Sir's call. He usually calls me when he gets off work to let me know he's on his way home. That way if I need anything for supper he can pick it up and if he's running late, I won't have supper getting cold by the time he gets home. Usually this call happens between 5:30 and quarter to 6. But that particular day, when I glanced at the clock, it was nearly 6pm and Sir still hadn't called me.

So, I decided to call him - sometimes he won't call me if he thinks I might still be taking my afternoon nap. I grabbed the phone and dialed the cell phone. After two rings, the phone in the kitchen started ringing and I jumped up to answer it. Obviously Sir must be calling me on the cell phone because I was on the land line and it would be busy. As I neared the cell phone, I cancelled my call to Sir in order to answer the ringing cell. But just as I reached for the cell phone, it stopped ringing! Ten minutes later, Sir called me on our house phone from work to say he was about to leave for home.

Sometimes I wonder why I tell Sir about these sorts of things.. he found my story terribly amusing. They say people 'Go Grey'... but I think some 'Go Blond' first!

*The term my mom used to described her children when they were running wildly about accompanied with lots of noise.