Spring Flowers

I couldn't resist showing off some of the lovely spring blooms around the yard. These flowers amaze me every year because I am not much of a flower gardener. I mostly just put the plants in the ground, add new mulch each year and then they are on their own. Sometimes I do remember to water them in especially dry weather, but only sometimes.

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These irises are my favorite, probably because I'm nuts about purple.

I'm so pleased with this rhododendron bush. It's growing leaps and bounds each year.

These yellow irises belong to AdventureQueen.

And I love these white azalea bushes. I planted these last spring. I just wish the blooms would last all summer. The peonies in the background are almost ready to burst. Their flowers get so big the plants bends over with the weight of them.

Even the pansies I planted last fall are still blooming.

Right now, with all of the wonderful weather, it's just so refreshing to sit on the deck or even mow the lawn. I haven't even been reading much because it's so nice to be outside taking it all in. I know only too well that it won't be long before the heat will be unbearable and I'll be retreating into the air conditioning with a book.

Notes From A Study of Proverbs ~ The Mouth

Here is my summary notes of my study of what Proverbs has to say about the things we speak. I simply read through Proverbs highlighting anything having to do with what we say and then put it into this format. I embarked on this study because I have desperate need of it in my own life. I have posted this list on my refrigerator with hopes that constant review along with prayer will impart these things to my mind and soul.

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The mouth of the righteous....

is a fountain of life
is as choice silver
feeds many

brings forth what is acceptable

conceals a matter
brings healing
turns away wrath with a gentle answer
makes knowledge acceptable
is soothing
is a tree of life
spreads knowledge
ponders how to answer
is life

holds his temper

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The mouth of the wicked or foolish...

conceals violence

destroys his neighbor

speaks rashly like sword thrusts

comes to ruin by his wide open lips

is a rod for his back

stirs up anger with harsh words

spouts folly

crushes the spirit with perversion

brings strife and calls for blows

is his ruin, the snare of his soul

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One who is careful with his words...

guards his soul from trouble

preserves his life

ponders how to answer

has knowledge

even if he is a fool, is considered wise when he is silent

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There is more hope for a fool than one who is hasty with his words.

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Other notes:

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Sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness

Pleasant words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

The right words in the right circumstances are like gold and silver.

A fool does not delight in understanding but only in telling his own thoughts.

Be careful how you answer a fool, he will not appreciate wisdom.

Things Keeping Me From Blogging

The Beautiful Spring weather and the yard work that calls out to me.
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Baseball, baseball, baseball.
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Another sister visiting with her adorable 7 week old baby girl.
(God is sure blessing me with having babies around lately!)
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Teenagers who like to stay up late and talk.
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Contemplating the subject of the previous post about giving your children in marriage, especially since a couple of new situations have arisen since that writing (I actually have to go through this possibly seven times???)

Passover vs. Easter

Several years ago I was walking through Sam's Club where the following conversation occured:

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Older Lady to my little daughter: Are you excited about the Easter Bunny coming?

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Me: Well, we don't celebrate Easter.

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Older Lady looks shocked.

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Me: (thinking, Oh no, now she thinks I'm a heathen) But we do celebrate Passover!

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Older Lady looks even more displeased.

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Me: (thinking, well, now she thinks I'm Jewish)

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There just wasn't an opportunity to explain that in my mind the Passover is the time to remember Christ's death and ressurection. While to me they are inextricably linked, to her they had no connection at all.

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We don't celebrate Easter, but every year our church gathers for our annual Passover dinner. We have lamb, unleavened bread, salads, baked potatoes (just to add something more filling) and grape juice. We have a short meeting beforehand where anyone can share their thoughts or scriptures and usually someone reviews the Passover story for the children. Sometimes we've had songs or skits about the crucifixion and ressurection. My kids have grown up having the two events intertwined.

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My daughter recently made an interesting observation that our public schools let the kids out for Good Friday and the Monday after Easter but teacher-led prayer and the teaching of creation is banned in school. Is it the Easter Bunny that merits time off school or it this just another dichotomy that our society thoughtlessly accepts??

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I don't look down on anyone who celebrates Easter. While I'm glad much of our country still celebrates the death and ressurection of our savoir, I can't help but feel they are missing the whole story and the big picture by leaving Passover out of it.

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We celebrate all three of the main Biblical Feasts. We don't celebrate them with any Jewish traditional fanfare. We simply try to follow the Biblical guidelines, which are pretty simple. We don't do it because we are bound by an old testament law or because we think it gives us some spiritual credit, we do so because we see a richer heritage in the keeping of the Feasts. We keep the Feasts because we appreciate the blessings and insight that the keeping of them gives.

The Great Sister Has a Great Announcement

The 'Great Sister' is expecting another baby!!!!!

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A surprise to all. But a happy surprise. This will be #7. She's done it. She's finally caught up with me. I'm sure my mother never dreamed she would end up with fourteen grandchildren just between the two of us.

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Baby Sarah is only just now six months old but Mama will have lots of help not only from Sarah's adoring brothers and sister but from her cousins, aunt and grandma who fight over her constantly.

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Now, I know why she was pigging out at the Mexican restaurant the other day! Eating for three isn't easy!

Bear Attack At One of Our Favorite Hiking Spots

A six year old girl was killed yesterday by a black bear and her mother and brother are seriously injured. You can read the story here.

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We have been to this hiking spot and lake many, many times so naturally, we are quite affected with this news today. The hike to Benton Falls is 1 1/2 mile trip one way and the falls are absolutely beautiful. They look like a giant wedding cake with all of the layers stacked on top of each other. We have often taken our little ones to play in the falls.

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I've worried about injuries like someone slipping on the wet rocks and cutting their head but I've never worried about a bear attack. I have known there are black bears up there but they mostly just get into the garbage. According to the news, this may be the first fatal attack in the Southeast. Black bears are not usually agressive. When this bear approached this poor frightened family, according to professional recommendations, they did the wrong thing by throwing rocks. I know you are supposed to walk away slowly but I imagine that would be awfully hard to do when you are that frightened.

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The boys and I had just finished reading The Bears of Blue River so this seems a little unreal to us at the moment.

Update: They still haven't caught the bear. Our hearts really go out to this family and we pray no one else will be hurt. Read the latest news here. It's weird to see our area in the national news. I'm glad I have big dogs who would probably scare off any man-eating bears that might decide to come off the mountain!

Marrying and Giving in Marriage

Cindy at Dominion Family wrote a short post about Courtship which I've been watching. So far, there are only four comments. I'm watching because I've been hoping for a substantial discussion. I'd love to hear ideas and thoughts from those who are interested in promoting happy, successful and holy marriages.

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I've mourned the fact that the Bible does not lay out the how-to's in this area. I've thought of different examples of marriages in the Bible and I just can't find a pattern.

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There's Abraham who sends for a wife for his son via way of his servant, back to his own land and Rebecca who goes with him to accept a groom sight unseen. How would that fly in our modern age? Abraham would be considered a controlling and intrusive father and Rebecca a silly girl who acted very unwisely.

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What about Ruth? Her mother-in-law tells her what to do to obtain her husband. Does Ruth just sit and wait and trust God to bring the right man knocking at the door? No, she is the one who instigates things. Imagine your daughter spending the night lying at the feet of an older man and then secretly sneaking out before morning light. Imagine how that would be viewed in the homeschooling/courtship circles!

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Then there's Abigail who went against her husband's wishes, called him a worthless fool, and saw the Lord take his life. Then she immediately becomes one of David's many wives (we won't touch that one). This flies in the face of almost all Christian teaching on marriage.

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There are others but I already know this post is going to be a long one.

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In our day when the divorce rate, even among believers, is astronomical, I can't help but question the issue of my children's marriages. I've whined and complained that I don't have many to go to for advice and helpful hints. I've read just about every book on the topic. I know many things that I do not want but then there's this whole vague area where there is so much I'm not sure about.

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I have one daughter who is planning to marry in February. She is marrying a young man from a family we have been good friends with and been in church with for ten years. They kept their feelings from each other for two years and prayed about it separately. When it all came to the light, they were betrothed and they will have waited 3 1/2 years by the time they marry. This has not been easy but it is working. They have spent most of their time with us (and all of their time chaperoned) and have submitted to every restraint. We have flown by the seat of our pants, sometimes backing up and starting again. Our confusion and lack of surety about how to do all this has been hard on everyone.

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Even after going through all of this, how much advice could I really offer to anyone? How many circumstances would be similar enough to mine for our situation to be applicable?? How much of what we have done has not been the best but God has had grace on us anyway??

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I have another daughter who longs to find the right husband and have children of her own and frankly, I think she's ready and I think she'll make a great wife and mother. How to guide her along is the question. Just tell her to sit and wait patiently?? Get out there and be more proactive?? Should we "interfere" more or less or not at all?? Are there any black and white answers??

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We do know some things. We don't want to have our children become emotionally or physically involved with a person who will not be their spouse. If at all possible, we want to protect both sides from experiencing the devastation of giving yourself and then having to withdraw or from just giving of themselves too soon. We want to handle the suitors that do come along with love and respect and we hope that even if they are not the right one, that we will have made new friends (or kept old ones). We want the process to be fun and not awkward. (Is that possible?) We want our children to be content in the meantime, casting all of their cares on Him. We want them to enjoy life right now and not sit around, do nothing, and only dream about their future.

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I know there is at least one answer that will not fail. Pray. Trust in God's grace. Lift these situations up to the throne room and look to Him who sees it all. I keep being reminded that His grace is enough. That is the one answer I know I am safe to count on.

Bad Hair Day

After a day of playing Indians with the boys, TheLittlestPrincess had great fun enjoying the static on the trampoline.

Prayer

"Now there was a certain man at Caesarea named Cornelius...a devout man, and one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and prayed to God continually. About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in to him, and said to him, "Cornelius!" And fixing his gaze upon him and being much alarmed he said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God...."

Acts 10:1-4

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Our Sunday sermons have been about prayer lately and maybe that is why this verse in Acts stood out to me. (Acts is the current book I am reading aloud to the kids in the mornings.) How much more would we value prayer if we realized the magnitude of this verse?

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A memorial before God.

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After doing a study on the Greek word for memorial, I find it is something that God is mindful of, something He holds in His memory.

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Imagine your prayers being a memorial before God. Imagine your prayers being so important that the God of the Universe, the One who created it ALL, holds YOUR prayers in His memory.

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Reading the rest of the chapter you will see that apparently Cornelius' acts of charity and prayers so touched God that it led to Cornelius, his household, relatives and close friends hearing the gospel and having the Holy Spirit fall on them in the same magnitude as the day of Pentecost in the Upper Room! This was the beginning of the movement of God's Spirit being poured out on the Gentiles, something that amazed the circumcised, new believers of the day.

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Something our pastor has been saying is that prayers are like the track and God's will is the train. Cornelius provided that track for God to move on and some amazing power was unleashed.

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This is one of those concepts that after touching, I want it to be something I never forget or become complacent about again.

SuperMoms (Take 2)

This is my second attempt on a post that I deleted months ago because I was not able to get my thoughts across correctly. This draft has been in my file for some time now and I think I'm finally brave enough to post it. I hope this time my thoughts will be more clearly conveyed. This time I have decided to state up front that I do not consider myself to be a super mom. The problem is that in my past others have labeled me as such.

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I know my weaknesses better than anyone else does. However, I have pretty much always been able to run my home in a fairly smooth way. For quite a few years before my marriage, I observed and assisted two more-than-capable women, my mom and my step-mom. My mom had to balance a career and a home and my step-mom handled a brood of six children and a rather eccentric husband. Both women had to deal with a very needy teenager, me. I had good examples to follow and I learned a lot. I knew how to clean a house and keep it in good order, cook dinner for a crowd, change diapers, and get six kids under eight ready and out the door. Keeping everything in its place became an obsession of mine, even as a teenager. I understood the importance of teaching young children obedience and taking care of what you had. I also understood the value in getting all “purtied” up to go out with your husband. So, I began married life with a big head start of experience.
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I don’t relate all of this out of pride. My experiences in life and the load of energy God gave me made me who I am. Especially when I was young mother, people would rave over how much I got done in a day. I was a high-energy person. I didn't create myself and I did not overcome another nature, so I have no bragging rights.

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Seven children and almost being forty has had it's effect. Now, even if I do get a room nearly perfect, with ten people in the house, it doesn’t last very long. And now that I'm older, I don't have the energy I used to have. I am often impatient and get stressed out over very small things. Most of the time, I confine myself to the first floor of our house in order to avoid getting very irritated at the messiness of the children’s rooms. To save my sanity and live with nine other people, it has been necessary for me to learn to let go. So, things change.
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The problem is this. There are women who are intimidated by women who can manage things effectively. That is understandable. They struggle. Some of them had no previous experience or good examples to learn from before entering marriage and motherhood. They were not endowed with a lot of energy by their Creator. They may even have physical problems that inhibit them in their work. Whatever the reason, they cannot seem to get it all together, at least not enough to satisfy themselves. I see them having two options. Accept who they are and come to terms with it. Or seek counsel from those who obviously can help and then try to follow their advice. In other words, seek to improve themselves. Either way it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t care what their house looks like, how much laundry they have piled up and when the last time the toilet was scrubbed. Really, I don’t. I am only responsible for my house and that is the only one I care about enough to notice what needs to be done.
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What I do care about is this intimidation sometimes leads to nasty comments and attitudes that would never be tolerated if the shoe were on the other foot. I have heard women make disdainful remarks about these “supermoms”. Assumptions are made which reveal they think they could never relate to one of these "perfect" women. In fact, I heard these kind of statements again recently at a homeschooling meeting.

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I once had a woman stand me up when she said she was bringing her sister to meet me. This sister lived on the other side of the country. I had really looked forward to the meeting because she had spent months telling me about this sister and how much she wanted her to meet me. Later she told me she didn't show up because she thought it would be discouraging for her sister to see how perfect my house was. I actually cried. Had I known, I would have been more than willing to mess up the house. I felt discriminated against for the way I ran my home. What if the situation had been reversed and I had stood her up because I didn’t want my sister to see how out of control a home could be? (not that hers was) Hands down, everyone would agree that such behavior was rude. But it was ok to do to me, because I was a "super-mom".

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This doesn’t just happen to me. I have seen others treated this way, mocked and held at a distance because of their perceived perfection. I have watched these so-called SuperMoms go out of their way to reveal their own weaknesses in order to be accepted. They don’t speak up when they have a suggestion to help a mother in need for fear of looking like a bragger. I have done the same thing. It’s lonely up on the pedestal and it’s not fun being trapped up there.
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I write all of this in hopes of opening eyes. Like God, we should seek to not show partiality in our love for others. Thankfully now I have many good friends who do not do this to me. I don’t have to worry. They know my weaknesses all too well. They know human weakness all too well and know better than to put anyone on that pedestal. But I still encounter it from time to time. And more often, I see others encounter it. Every one of us desires unconditional love, the struggling mother who can’t seem to get a handle on life AND the one with the perfect nails, hair and home.

Puzzles

A friend told us about White Moutain Puzzles and we recently bought the American History puzzle. Six of the children are busy working on it, much faster and with more obsession than I would have preferred. I was hoping it would last a while but 'many hands make light work'. It has been great fun, except when I have to tell them to stop and get to work! :)

We also bought the American Revolution but we are saving that for next year when the boys study that time period with Ambleside Year 4. I had forgotten how nice it is to have a puzzle in process and see everyone work on it from time to time. The nice thing about these puzzles is that you are learning about the topic while you work the puzzle. We plan on adding to our collection over the years and maybe keeping a puzzle going all the time.

Spring Break at the Beach

We were blessed with the opportunity to go down to Florida for a couple of days and boy, did we enjoy ourselves. Mr. Potts had a sign that needed to be delivered to Pensacola so we took the time to drive it down there ourselves and enjoy a little R & R at the beach. We drove down on Thursday afternoon and reached Pensacola that night. Mr. Potts decided to surprise us with a room right on the beach. While some of us got settled in the room, he took some of the children down for a night walk on the beach. It was worth cramming all nine of us in one room to wake up to the beautiful view of the sand and surf. We had a fairly secluded spot and spent the morning having our part of the beach pretty much all to ourselves.

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After delivering the sign, we drove on to Destin, where our rooms were reserved. This time we were able to spread out into two rooms and even though they didn't connect, as we had hoped, we still enjoyed the space.

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We spent most of our time just lounging, walking on the beach and playing in the waves. It was wonderfully refreshing. We added a few more birds to our life lists, the brown pelican, the cormorant and of course, plenty of seagulls. Mr. Potts took this great picture of a gull about to catch a piece of bread.

Reluctanly, we climbed back into the van late in the afternoon on Sunday, still wet and sandy, and headed north. Thankfully, we had friends who live about 4 1/2 hours from Pensacola (er, 4 if MamaLion is driving and everyone sleeps the whole time) and we stopped there for the night. We did have to rise very early in the wee hours of the morning so Mr. Potts could be back at work by 8am.

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Now we are home, happy to return to the spring. The leaves are coming on and so is baseball season! We have games every night this week except Wednesday! It is a very busy time of year for us but we really have a good time being together and cheering the boys on. An extra blessing is having cousins playing on the same teams so that means more time with family in the bleachers. And we enter this season of craziness with a perfect cap to our winter of rest.