It never gets old to me. Beauty.

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Meet Lucy. We thought long and hard about ever having a creature with 4 legs in our home again...especially in the city. But when our kids get sad, the "I miss Gunner" spot is where they always tend to go in their hearts.

Gunner was our 104 lb. black lab we moved here from Texas in 2005. He lasted less than 2 years in the city at 8 years old and a TANK of a dog to haul up 6 flights of stairs when the elevator was out! He retired on a nice farm in Texas his last several years, thanks to some great friends who adopted him. While we did miss his presence in our family, JR and I literally "high fived" each other the day we sent him back home to Texas! Sounds warped...but it's true.

We spent the last 5 years with no dog. Then, we started tossing around the idea of blessing our kids at their heart level. We couldn't shake it off...giving them something to spend their love on and gain joy from started to sink into our minds and hearts for our children. We wanted to give them this gift. Along with this gift has been a gift to US of their responsibility in proving they can keep a home "puppy safe!" Lucy is well loved and each child has a job to care for her.

Lucy has been a sweet addition to our family dynamic. Our kids are often too wrapped up in playing with Lucy to fight and argue with each other! Lucy is an agent of peace and joy in our home. What a blessing...we are happy to have a dog...again. (Never thought I'd say that...ha.)

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I'm always learning more about how little boys show love to their moms. The way I want him to show love is just to say sweetly with cute eyes looking up at me, "I love you, Mommy!" Followed by a short and simple hug.

That just doesn't happen.

I've made it a matter of prayer lately. Yesterday I prayed that God would enable my son to express and communicate love to others, including me...especially to me. Not entirely a selfish prayer, since I really long to see God express His love through my children. If they can express love easily inside our home, then I can begin to see true expressions of love to others outside our home as well. But, hugs, "I love you's", and spontaneous sweetness cannot be coersed or requested, particularly from my little boy. The essence of freely giving love is removed and the joy in receiving is diminished. 

A breakthrough happened in direct answer to my prayer. Fast forward to the afternoon, my son and I were on the couch while he rested after a long day of school. He simply moved my knees closer to him, moved my hands out of the way and laid his head down on my lap.

No words. None needed.

He communicated his love. He was comforted and so was I.

I can rest in that.

Today, that was a gift.

My daughter and I are making a dessert from Australia & New Zealand. She is studying this part of the world in her geography lessons...so we are going to try this out!  If anyone has any advice or a good recipe, let me know.  In particular we would like to try to make Pavlova which seems like a mereingue type of thing.  I've seen pictures of it shaped like cookies and shaped like a big disk then covered in whipped cream and berries or even chocolate.

Thanks!

If you were to walk down our one tiny hallway in our little apartment, you'd notice a wall of photos of our kids.  In the middle of one collage of baby portraits of each of our 3 kids, you'd see a shiny white ceramic cross.  In the middle of that cross is a silver plaque with "Peace" engraved on it.  I am not sure when it happened, but over a big move and unpacking it, the silver plaque "Peace" fell off.  In a hurry to just get settled and get our pictures on the wall, I grabbed a strip of scotch tape, slapped the "Peace" plaque back on the cross & hung it on the wall as the focal point of our collage. There, I was all done!

Now, every time I walk down my hall I can't help but chuckle inside.  It's been a year and a half since I taped the "peace" on...it's still there.  I had every intention of gluing it back on permanently and taking the obvious scotch tape off.  As time goes on, I have actually enjoyed seeing "peace" taped onto our collage focal point.  It reminds me that peace in our home is something we have to pray for and teach...it takes some effort to hold it all together.  That little piece of tape holds our "peace" together.  Sometimes, just a nice word, nice deed, or setting aside my own preferences is that little piece that holds our peace. 

We've adopted a family verse in our home...Philippians 2:3-4 "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

We hope to see this attitude in our home piece by peace...

Loved this quote! 

On a side note, I highly recommend that you women out there sign up for Nancy Leigh DeMoss's emails via Revive Our Hearts ministry. Her True Woman Manifesto is solid, counter-cultural, and God-honoring.  It is encouraging to read her devotionals right from my inbox daily.  I'm also a part of her Scripture memory plan each month.  I try to internalize the Scripture of the week...(I haven't been able to perfectly memorize...but at least I'm meditating daily on scripture so much that it is always on my mind and tongue).  I find myself on the computer often, maybe too much, but I try to be productive using the computer as my resource also, using an online Bible really helps too.  Take heart, ladies!  Use this technology for your edification!!!  :)

Here is a great talk to read or listen to...about a Virtuous Woman...
http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/today.php?pid=9464

The kids had a blast at our annual Apostles Church egg hunt! Despite the 38
degrees it was beautiful and sunny. Easter Sunday made up for it
thought...a pleasant 70 degrees or so? Happy Easter for sure. HE IS RISEN!!

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