Ode to My Precious

Camera, that is.

Our time together has been blissfully sweet,
And now that that time has come to an end,
Oh how I hate to see you go!

You brought us such excitement
So many special moments you captured
For us to tuck away in a book
To pull out and ponder when time has rolled on
Or enlarge and display on the wall, the coffee table

We fell in love with your bright colors
Your focus ever so sharp
Your features were ever so many to be praised
We uploaded, we stored, and we developed
All because of you..

It is such a bittersweet occasion that we send you off
To be repaired by another's hand
We trust you will come back, good as new
And we will make sweet memories together, once again


Our dear camera ceased to function last week. It appears there is a "Focus Error" and we will have to send it off to San Antonio, TX to be fixed. We will miss our dear friend while it is gone.

Gotta Give Him Praise!

This evening, Grace and her best friend from church had been playing in the backyard and had gotten pretty dirt/muddy, mostly from Elijah being a boy and throwing mud and water on them ;) . So I put the girls in the bathtub before getting them dressed for church. I was in Grace's room getting Emma dressed when I heard a CRASH and a big splash! My heart leaped in my throat because I knew instantly what it was--one of the glass doors in our bathtub/shower had fallen in the bathtub. I flew in the bathroom, not sure what kind of sight I would find when I opened the door. The girls sat there, looking a little sheepish, fearing they were in big trouble. They were surrounded by and sitting in a million shards of glass!! The glass door had completely shattered!

John rushed in and helped me to get the girls out. Miraculously, both girls had only a few minor nicks/scratches on their legs and feet. Grace had about 4 band-aids on her foot, but besides that she is fine. TexAnna had maybe one or two scratches on her legs. Grace seemed to have gotten the most glass on her. While I got TexAnna dried and dressed, John picked glass out of Grace's ears, nose, and hair. He got more cuts on his hands from picking out glass than Grace had on her entire body!

As I was scooping broken glass out of the tub, I realized more and more how serious this could have been. One shard of piece in an eye or throat or wrist could have been fatal for either of these sweet little girls! I give God all the glory and praise and ALL the credit!! It's such a wonderful thing to be in the hands of The Almighty!

He's got the whole world in His hands...even two little mischievous little girls. I believe I'll keep serving Him and praising Him!

So what do men REALLY want?

Hmm...

More time to piddle work in the shop?

Childless trips to Home Depot on the weekends?

The grass mowed, the car/truck washed, the bed painted? (inside joke bw hubby and I).

A well-dressed, perfectly groomed wife?

A spotless house?

Or maybe it's simply...

TRUST.

Proverbs 31:11-12 "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life."

Can our husbands trust us with their heart? I don't think this verse is limited to fidelity issues. What other areas do our husbands wish to trust us with?

Finances--"...so that he shall have no need of spoil." Can a husband trust a wife who makes unwise financial decisions or sneaks around and spends his money behind his back? I have to admit, there's been times when I've found a REALLY good deal on something. When the truth of the matter was, there's no money left in the budget for that kind of purchase. But it's SUCH a GOOD deal!! Mm-hmm...you've been there too, haven't you?

Decisions-- I think I have mentioned before, that my husband likes to take us on Friday evening outings. More often than not, I have no clue where we are going to eat, or shop, or whatever he has planned. This is REALLY hard for me because I like to plan ahead. But my husband, he wants me to sit back, relax, and just wait and see what he is going to do for us. He wants me to trust in his ability to give us an enjoyable evening. Put him in charge!

Conversation-- Ok, it looks like I am about to air some dirty laundry here. A couple of weeks ago, we had company over for dinner and games. Now, I am definitely the more outgoing person in our marriage. If there is a lull in the conversation, I feel it is my responsibility to fill it. Aparantly, I filled in a little too much that evening. My husband asked me afterward, "Do you have to tell everything?" I think he was a little uncomfortable with my chattiness that night. I apologized, and Lord, please help me not to do that to him again. I want him to trust in my conversation, not be ashamed of it.

It always amazes me at how the picture of Christ and the church models how things should be in our marriage. Christ wants us to trust him completely with every area of our lives. God made Adam in His likeness, and so men have the same in-bred needs to be the leader. Although it's hard, it brings forth much fruit when the men hold the reigns and can trust us wives not to try and take them away.

I'm not claiming to be an expert, people, I'm just amazed that I never stop learning about marriage and what makes it successful. And boy, do have a LOT more to learn!

A Little Sarcasm

Those poor Acklen children.....


Their parents do not even own a TV....



They must be bored out of their little sheltered minds...


Whatever do they do all the time??

Challenges

WARNING: If you are a male reader, you may want to skip this one. Lots of yucky, female information that you probably don't want to know.

Well, it's been an interesting week around here. We've been in revival at church (yes, we have a LOT of revivals), and that always changes our routine up a bit and creates a lot of challenges. Added to nightly church services, my husband had final exams Tuesday and Wednesday night. This meant he was absent for the first three nights of the week. Monday evening he went straight to the library to study before church and Tuesday and Wednesday nights were his actual exams.

Monday morning I woke up feeling like I had bit hit by a freight train. I had the makings of a chest cold, plus just felt really, really out of sorts. Weak, achy, sluggish. Ick. A trip to the bathroom revealed the reason for some of my discomfort: my 18 month hiatus (including 9 months of pregnancy) from the female sufferings has now come to an end. Now I've read that, on average, the longest a woman can forgo this womanly pleasure by exclusively breastfeeding is about 14 months. Which is what I was shooting for. So I find my 9 month sprint a little too short.
My body apparantly felt that it should make up for all that lost time. Thus, I became so weak at times that I got dizzy and felt I was going to pass out.

As you can probably imagine, it is quite a feat to get three kids 4 and under ready to go anywhere, on a normal, non-female sufferings day. Well, Monday, (of course it would be Monday) I started early because we had to go to WM on the way and get some diapers. Everything went pretty smooth on getting the three kids ready. And then I attempted to get myself ready. Just as I started to fix my waist-length hair, Elijah hollers (we say "holler" in the south) "Mama, Snowbell is hungry." So, I say get the food bowl out of the laundry room and take it out on the porch and feed him. "Laundry room?" Apparantly he forgot where the laundry room was after living here for a year. And then, "Food bowl?" Bless him, he's just like his Dad--couldn't find a clothes pin attached to his nose. So I put down all the hair utensils and take him to the laundry room and show him where the food bowl is--right there where it always is. I go back to fixing my hair.

Two minutes later: "Mama! Come look at Emma!" Elijah had decided he'd rather feed the cat inside the house than outside on the porch as instructed. So I find Emma sitting on the floor, the cat food bowl dumped out, and she has both fists, as well as both cheeks FULL of cat food. Yuck!! As I am emptying her mouth, she is constantly reaching for more. So I put her in her bed, screaming, and sweep up the cat food mess. Then I get her out, and bring her into the bathroom with me while I try to fix my hair again. She loves to stand by the edge of the bathtub and knock all the bottles and stuff into the tub. While entertaning herself in this manner, she finds a cup of water and spills it all over her. Now we need to change HER clothes. My hair still isn't fixed. Well, it got fixed eventually.

Finally, we get in the van, only to discover that Elijah's booster seat is still in Dad's car from their last trip to the store together. So off to the library we go to get it. We finally make it to church, after going to Wal-Mart and fighting the just-got-off-of work crowd. I feel my mind is really scattered and I need to try to pray before service. So I put the kids in the fellowship hall with a teenager and kneel down. Two minutes later, someone taps me on the shoulder, "Sis. Amy, Grace wet herself all over her dress." Siiiiiiighhhhh........so here we go, load back up and head to the house to change her clothes and shoes.

And this is ONLY MONDAY!!

In order to shorten the length of this blog post, I will not share what all happened Tuesay night. Wednesday night, I recruited the assistance of my pastor's teenage daughter to watch the kids while I got ready for church.

All in all, it has been a great revival and it has been worth all the work. Usually the devil fights hardest when he knows that a victory is about to be won. I tell myself that if I was not giving the devil a reason to come against me, then he would leave me alone and not give any resistance. I persevered, made it to church, and God has blessed me richly for it. And I'm sure the on-looking angels got a few laughs out of our calamities :).

Dance With Me?

A few weeks ago, a dear lady from church brought Grace a bag of dress-up clothes that her granddaughter had outgrown.

Grace has had a ball......

Woops! Panty line showing!

She will don a dress (or two or three at a time)....


Twirl and step...


And look at me with her big, blue eyes to say...


Will you dance wiff me?