A Psalm For Every Season

In the morning before my prayer time I read through three chapters of Psalms. At Psalms 119 I split it up into about four days. They have been such a blessing on my life. When I was going through this I read Psalms about God's protection and His vengeance on those who came against His people. So, comforting.

Psalms 91:9-10, "Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."

Psalms 140:4-5, "Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah."
When I am at my wit's end with Children who I just don't understand God gives me Psalms about his grace and mercy. Words that I can apply to my children and pray over them.


Psalms 144:12-15, "That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD."

Psalms 128:2-4, "For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD."

Psalms 112:1-3, "Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever."

Psalms 103:17-18, "But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them."

Psalms 32:8, "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye."

Some days are just days of worship. The Psalms are full of worship. Praise to God. Glorifying His name and who HE is, it's a wonderful time.

Psalms 16:8, "I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."

Psalms 62:1-2, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved."

Psalms 89:1, I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations."

Psalms 139:13-14, "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

Some Psalms are Psalms to call me to repentance. Psalms that touch me so deeply that I can't help but cry out to God for forgivness and renewal!

Psalms 139:1-6, "O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."

Psalms 119:9-16, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word."

Psalms 51:2-17, " Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

And oh, so many more. May the Psalms bring you whatever you need in this season of your life.

Be Blessed!

And they danced...

When daddy is home we...

take impromptu trips to the zoo!
This giraffe walked right up to us.. until he figured out we weren't going to pay to feed him. So he stormed off. Ok, not really but it sounded good.

Adrian, asked me to take this picture with him and Jonathan. After 30 minutes of trying to get them up there both boys were like, "Hot, sweaty, are we done?" Cute pic, huh?

This is my girly girl. LOL Seriously. But today she had the urge to climb and swing. See daddy's strong arms in the background ready to catch?

Yes, my children, please dip your fingers into the dirty water. I will take the picture to remind me of you after you catch swine flu.

Just stand still! I don't care if you smile! This is the entrance to the new Asian garden. It was really quiet lovely.

Come on, I have this new camera and I must take pictures. This is the third attempt with this picture. This is by the lotus pond. Then you cross The Bridge of the Weeping Tree (or something like that) and leave the Lotus behind to venture onto the Koi pond. Thrilling.

I cracked up when I looked at this picture. Can you see the pained expression on Tamara's face? You would never know it was overcast by the squints and glares I was getting.

Mom, why are you taking pictures of flowers? Hush, it's my camera! I thought these hydrangeas were pretty and they made me think of my sister in law who loves hydrangeas. Plus, they did not squint, glare, move, or complain when I took the picture.

Blurry, but oh so worth it. I love the look of pure delight. Apparently she did not know I was taking the picture. Thus the smile.

My spider monkey. He wanted me to take a picture of him and I Am Speed (Lightening McQueen) in the spider web. "Ha, Ha, that's punny, mommy!"

Can you tell they are holding hands? Ha, Ha, caught ya! You do love each other. The other picture I had was too blurry. And check out those clouds. It was still to be another hour and a half before it rained. Although the lightening crackling above us made us move pretty quickly towards the parking lot.

More pretty flowers that preened and curtsied as I took their picture. Thank you flowers for allowing me to play with my camera today.

As we left the zoo I had to snap this picture. Still no rain, but we half expected to see our first funnel cloud. Look at the sun trying to break through though. I thought it was a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.

Be Blessed!

For this season...

I had an interesting conversation with a friend on Facebook today. I was speaking of being blessed by being able to be home to take care of my family. She asked me how I balanced it all. I had to laugh as we had this conversation.
(Part of my pantry)

The first thing I told her was that I strongly follow the "Fake it til you make it" principle. Yep. I pretend that being home with my family and cleaning my home and taking care of my family is my most joyous past time. I might force a smile or a tune. I might laugh a little to loudly, but it's all in the attitude. If I grumble and complain nothing will get accomplished and no one will feel like a blessing that day. LOL

(My Fireplace)

The next thing I told her is that I have to recognize what I am doing is only for a season. One day my kids will be grown and gone and I will have all the "me" time I can stand and then some. Right now I have to invest as much of myself into my family and home as possible. It's such a short time. "Wait a minute! Hold on! I have to have some time to myself. That's not asking to much!" you might want to argue. I agree. That's the next thing I shared with her.

(The queen of laundry, Miss Kelsie)

I catch my moments here and there. Maybe it's only 5 or 10 minutes when I look around and realize I can stop for a moment. I like to check my facebook or blog or read other blogs. That down time can give me the oomph to get right back in there. This morning my kids were reading together, laundry was going, and the sink was empty. I could have started school, but I though, let me take just 5 minutes to check email/facebook. And I did. No big deal. I was done within the five minutes and we started school. Easy as pie. And I have pretty much been going the rest of the day. My kids are resting right now and dinner is cooking so I thought I'd blog for a few minutes.

(Cheesy himself, Master Jonathan)

My family is a huge priority for me right now. As a matter of fact I believe it's God's biggest priority for me right now. My husband is unemployed and looking at a new career that would change our whole lives. He is working diligently to get our house ready for market if it comes to that. He needs me to be supportive and to handle all the other day to day stuff. He needs me to manage this home efficiently. My children are all going through spells of disobedience. School work is the last thought on any of their little hearts. They need me to be consistent and have a good attitude. They need me to be able to change things up a bit every now and then and keep it fun.

Truly, for the most part I love being home. I love ministering to these blessings God has given me. There are days of course when I think, "Surely a full time job would be so much easier than this!" LOL But those are the days that I go to Jesus and tell Him that I can do all things through Him. Not by my strength but by His. Then I slap that fake smile on. I start to sing a little too loudly and forcefully and I head back out to the field. Because this is one battle I am determined to fight and see the Lord's victory over.

Be Blessed!

Guess What I Got...

My handsome hubby below thought that I would like to go and pick out my own Mothers Day present. He was right. I said what are you thinking of? He said how about a camera since yours is having some issues. Let me pause here to say that my old camera was given to me by a dear friend and has been so wonderful. It's having trouble holding a charge and we never could get it to cooperate with our computer so I could never download right to the computer. So I got a new camera for Mother's Day. A Nikon (one of the cheaper ones not the really nice ones!) it works wonderfully for me and I adore it.

Please ignore the computer desk. I cropped out as much as I could. I am looking for some small baskets to hold the stuff that accumulates up there.

What is up with my table cloth? Heck, what is up with my brother? The red guy? That's my little brother. Here we are having the special meal of Spaghetti for Mother's Day. My mom looks a bit surprised?

This picture looks a bit odd. I will have to play with the colors a bit more. Anyways, here is my mom making flowers out of tissue paper for the girls. They were enthralled.

Who are these guys? And seriously, what is up with my tablecloth? LOL I promise they are supposed to be the same color. They had a great Mother's Day playing with all their cousins.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Be Blessed!

Praying Together

I sure wish I could get to this blog more than once a week. Maybe things will slow down a bit in a few days and I can. My floors are almost done so that will be a huge thing off of my plate. Of course in a few short weeks we start painting. LOL

We have been reading the book Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends aloud lately. It's really a great book and I recommend it to all. My younger kids don't get it a whole lot but they seem to enjoy listening to the stories.

Last night we talked about building relationships now that will last into adulthood. Something I pulled out was prayer. The Bible tells us in Matthew 18:18-20, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

I encouraged my children to look around at one another. If they have a strong relationship with one another as they grow older then they automatically have four other people to agree with them in prayer. How awesome is that?!

I even told them it does not have to wait until they are grown up. They can take their prayer requests to one another now.

My kids have a pretty good relationship. Not too much arguing and fighting. As I look on other families where siblings barely speak to each other I realize how blessed I truly am. I think a lot of it has to do with homeschooling. They can't go their separate ways every day. They have to rely on each other to entertain themselves. It's sweet to see my kids reading to each other or building tall lego buildings together. To see them gravitate to one another in a crowd of children.

I would love to continue to nurture that against all the naysayers who claim our kids will despise each other in the coming years.

One weapon I will use is our prayer times together. If your praying for someone it's a lot harder to despise them, I think. If your praying with someone it draws you closer to that person's heart.

Yes, I will fight for my kids relationships with one another. I will guard them jealously. Friends come and go, but you will always be connected in some way to your siblings. I want to do what I can to make sure my kids enjoy that connection.

Be Blessed!