Emily Turns Three!

The birthday girl helping make pancakes for breakfast.

Yeah! I'm three!

We had a small party for Emily earlier this month. She just wanted to have a couple of girls over from church. She was so excited! We had a lot of fun watching all the little ones play and enjoy each other.

Jessica posted some great ideas for theme cakes (mostly for boys). Here is our girly girl cake! Emily wanted a lady bug theme.

Sean's mom and my parents came to the party too. (Thus the great pictures by my dad.) We did a little craft from the left over flower arranging supplies. Evan and Amy were big helpers with the little ones. Evan was a bit disappointed that all Emily's girl friends had sisters and not brothers. Another opportunity to serve and be gracious!

The older kids setting up the flower arranging for the little ones. They had a lot of fun doing this, both the big kids and the little kids.

Sophie with her arrangement.

Sierra with hers.

Playdough was another fun activity.

Beautiful baby Tess.

Patiently waiting for cake!

Little girls also love to play house!

Maggie on the rocking horse.

Evan posing by our friends "Bug".

Lost Links

Sorry I haven't posted much here lately. Blogging seems to go in waves for me. For a time I have a lot to share and time to write, and then other times it's pretty slow.

I was looking back over some ideas that I had started to write about but never finished. Almost all of my drafts were links to other web sites that I meant to come back and comment on, but never got a chance.

So here are some great links. Food, friends, my pastor's preaching. It's all good stuff. Enjoy!

Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary-Orange glaze

Speaking of food, does anyone want to try this idea with me?

A little late for this years Valentine's day, but this article is a good one to deal with expectations in marriage throughout the year.

We went through these questions with some good friends on New Years (I told you I was behind!) But they are great for reflection at any time, a birthday, or start of the summer would be perfect too.

My friend Alicia has a gift for poetry. This one spoke to me awhile back.

This past Sunday (OK, it was in October!) our pastor preached about God's amazing grace. It was so helpful and encouraging. You can listen to the sermon here. It may take a minute to get started, but it's worth it.

Guest Blogging

Today I am guest blogging over at my good friend Jessica's blog. She is doing a series on the challenges of motherhood. You can read what I have written here.

God's Grace and Fear

"So often we ignore the awesome displays of God’s faithfulness to people in trials and instead imagine ourselves in their situation, minus the grace of God. We would do well to heed Elisabeth Elliot’s wise reminder that there is no grace for our imaginations. The next time we observe someone going through a trial, let’s turn off our imaginations and instead fix our gaze on the marvelous, abundant, overwhelming and timely grace of God—the same grace that will be available to us when we actually need it."

Taken from Girl Talk. To read the whole (little) article, go here.

The "Christmas" Spirit

Our pastor is getting ready to go on sabbatical next month. Since he finished preaching on Hosea, he wanted to spend a couple of weeks helping us as a congregation to press on in love while he is gone. (I'll link the sermon when it gets posted.)

This morning, I was reading "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer. It fit so wonderfully with what Pastor John Marc was saying.

Packer was talking about the incarnation and how Christ became poor for our sakes. How He laid aside His glory, voluntarily restrained His power, accepted hardship, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding so that we could have hope of peace with God.

"It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.

We talk glibly of the "Christmas spirit," rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round. ......

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor-spending and being spent-to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others-and not just their own friends-in whatever way there seems need.

There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things he will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit." (Knowing God by J.I. Packer page 63-64)

On the Way to Bed...

Me: Time for bed my sweet tired girl.

Emily: I not!

Me: You're not sweet or not tired?

Emily: I not sweet; just tired.

My Birthday Present

I came home yesterday to this.....


What used to be a big pile of dirt is now a beautiful flagstone patio ready for outdoor eating and entertaining! My husband is an amazingly hard worker. He can also get a bit romantic at times.

All my favorite flowers are starting to bloom too. Spring is here in sunny Ca!

Comments

Of course, all bloggers love comments. It's really the only way you know that someone read what you wrote. Plus there's usually good encouragement or discussion. However.... If I commented on every blog post that my friends wrote, I would never get my dishes done.

I was out of town this week, visiting my nephew Noah, who just turned one. When I came back there were 49 emails and 55 blog posts. Yikes! I gave myself an hour and got caught up. But, I didn't comment much. So I just wanted to tell you all that I did read your blogs this week. Thanks for sharing all the great posts, cute pictures and thoughtful insights. Sorry that I didn't comment much. Now I have to go do the dishes!