Friday, September 25, 2009

Courage

Courage doesn't panic; it prays.
Courage doesn't bemoan; it believes.
Courage doesn't languish; it listens.
It listens to the voice of God calling.
from Max Lucado

(I originally mis-identified the author! John Piper didn't say this, Lucado did. Sorry!)

Final Farmer's Market

This Saturday, September 26th will be the final Farmer's Market day!
We hope to be there. But it depends on just how bad the weather is on Saturday.
Did you see the big wet snow-flakes today?
Hope to see you at Farmer's Market on Saturday!

Abigail's Prayer

We always have a family prayer time before we hug and kiss the girls good night. The girls each say a prayer, and then Jake & I each pray as well.
About a month ago, Abigail prayed a simple prayer... It was incredibly powerful, though.

She started out being silly, but we've taken it and we've expanded on it.

She said this, "Thank you God for loving me, and loving me, and loving me, and loving me, and loving me, and loving me, and loving me and loving me. Jesus, God, amen."

We've talked about the fact that what she said is true...
We will never know the end of God's love.
We can't imagine how truly big His heart is.
We can't run out of His love.
We can't run away from His love.
His love will never run out.
His love will never leave us.
His love will never go away.










Her simple prayer echoes these verses:

Romans 8:38-39 (New International Version)
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Ephesians 4:17-19 (New International Version)
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.


1 John 3:1 (New International Version)
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

God's Voice- Part 1

God has spoken to me. Clearly, loudly, and in vivid pictures.
I've been thinking about how incredibly blessed I am...

Many people go their entire lives without hearing the voice of God. They faithfully obey and read God's word and never hear God's voice.

I know I've heard God speak clearly several times, and I thought it would be cool to travel down those memory paths... To remember the times He's given me very clear direction.

*****
After my grammy & cousin died from cancer, my family moved to California. I had very few friends and we ended up in a lousy neighborhood. I saw racism, drugs, gangs, and abused kids (all on a small scale). Then we moved to Kotzebue in Alaska and I witnessed alcoholism, poverty, domestic violence, and experienced racism.... Next, we moved to Fairbanks. Here I had two close friends who were being abused in their home, one by her uncle and the other by her father. And at the same time, I was learning about how evil we've been to each other throughout history- the trail of tears, the Japanese internment camps, the Nazis in Germany...

I came to a point where I truly believed that God was either evil, powerless, or nonexistent. If He had power and was this incredibly wonderful & loving God like I was told at church, why didn't He do something for the powerless? Why didn't He save my Grammy who loved Him so much? Why didn't He stop or prevent some of the evil?

I attended church, because that was a requirement in my house, but I stopped believing in a good God. I stopped trusting Him. I wanted to have nothing to do with Him.

Until my friend who'd experienced so much abuse opened up about some of what was going on in her home- attempted suicide, went away, and came back a different person.

She talked about God being the 'perfect Daddy'. Not like her own. She talked about how much His love had changed her.

And God spoke to me.
Not some loud voice.
Not some huge fanfare.
Just a quiet whisper...

At the Youth Evangelism Conference in Anchorage AK, a man named David Ring http://www.davidring.org/about.html spoke about God's love.
David has cerebral palsy and a powerful testimony.

And again, I heard God's whisper...

"I love you. I have a plan for you...
I love you. I am holding on to you, even though you are pushing me away.
Remember, I love you.
I love you. I will never leave you or forsake you.
I love you."

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Jake's Pop Tarts

Jake had pop tarts at work, 'cuz he was hungry.
Blech. I do not like pop tarts.
Neither of us knew there was a pop tart guy.




Did you know there was a wonky pop tart guy on the box???
There he is. He's NOT drawn in for vandalizing fun. He's 'fresh' from the store.
Weird.
Jake says he wishes he could get paid to draw for Kellogg's...

It Snowed!

It snowed today!
Not for long, and it melted upon touching the ground.
But there was definitely frozen water falling from the sky.

Jake took this picture from the admissions desk at the Museum of the North.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Daisy Vine Necklace

I finished this piece two nights ago. I like it. The vine necklace idea is very different than anything I've tried before.
Although I have used similar flowers in my hair clips, I've never worked these into a necklace. The entire piece feels BIG to me! ;-)
Which is funny, 'cuz my jewelry is rarely big, and the first word most people use to describe my work is 'delicate'. It's still delicate, just BIG delicate. "snicker" If there is such a thing as BIG delicate...
Anyway, it's now up for sale.
Glass beads & wirework
$55

Horton Hats


Abigail made a Horton hat at school and brought it home. Of course, we all oohed and aaahed over it.















So Deborah had to make one... :)


Aren't they cute in their Horton hats?



Sunday, September 20, 2009

Not profound











I want to say something profound, but there's nothing profound in me today.

We are supposed to have snow on Tuesday. Oh, God! I'm so not ready for winter.

We all stayed home sick from church. Deborah has been sick for the last several days. Jake is sick with a cold, possibly the flu. Abigail is recovering. And I have a headache.

Luna is sleeping next to me all curled up on a chair. So cute! When I type, her whiskers and ears twitch. And when I whisper "kitty" her eye barely opens. Just enough to check where I am & if I need her.

My expression in this picture makes me laugh. The girls are so cute, and I look like I'm gonna kill the person with the camera...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

God's Voice

I heard God more clearly yesterday than I have in a long time.
I've been so frustrated lately and with my life and our situation... I'm not sure I'm thrilled with what God spoke into my heart, but I am sure I heard His voice.
He said to me, "Until you are content with ME, your life will not have much change."
Hmmm... Sometimes I wish God would choose to let me do what I want, instead of what He knows is best for me!!! =)
Oh, well. So for now, I am choosing to be content with Him. Choosing to rest in Him. Choosing to accept that this is the place we are in, for now.
He is more than enough.













More Than Enough
by Chris Tomlin

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You are my supply
My breath of life
And still more awesome than I know
You are my reward
worth living for
And still more awesome than I know

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You're my sacrifice
Of greatest price
And still more awesome than I know
You're the coming King
You are everything
And still more awesome than I know

More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

My Love Affair with Fantasy


This is the one. The book that started it all. And the original cover (or at least part of it). Scholastic has re-released the book with some funky new cover, but I like the old one best.
I first read 'The Forgotten Door' by Alexander Key in 5th grade. I had Mrs. Milan in Riverside, California and she pretty much let me read whatever I wanted.
(That was the year I read through the set of encyclopedias on her classroom shelf. Yes, I was that weird.)
However, The forgotten Door was part of the curriculum, and I LOVED it.
A kid gets lost through some old teleportation/time-travel door, and stuck in our world. He deals with suspicious small-town people, guns and our judicial system. His telepathy makes it possible for him to communicate with the family who finds him and helps him, but can't stop the legal system from trying to 'protect' him.
Up until this point I had read a lot of Nancy Drew/ Trixie Belden type stuff. After this, I was transported into C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe type stuff.
I discovered my niche. My comfort zone. My happy place.
I re-read this book last week, and discovered it has stood up to the test of time. It's still good.
Mind you, I wasn't as enthralled as my 9 year old self, but the story itself is good. I could see/remember why I loved it so much.

Red Flowers

Here's my latest wire piece. I'm pleased with it. Of course, there are things I'd change, but I'm never telling what they are! =)
$45.00
Made by Rebecca

Monday, September 14, 2009

Nikita

Our 'new' old car. We've named her Nikita because she has quite a past...












She's a '99 Dodge Neon, and Jake's in love with her...

Jake found her through an ad in the paper, and paid (IMO) way more than she was worth.
She's been in an accident and we keep finding more things wrong with her because of the accident...

Such as: the reservoir for windshield fluid was sheered off, there is no horn, the dome light doesn't work... all of which are related to electrical issues. Jake's been able to fix most of the problems, but I wish he didn't have a fascination with fixing up old things...

Here's the other reason we've called her Nikita- under the seat covers she had a secret compartment cut into the passagenger car seat. There's no other reason I can imagine for that except transporting drugs.

She's a lovely sparkly purple and one of her front side panels is black. The girls like her 'cuz she's purple. LOL.










The driver's seat was miserable and terribly uncomfortable for my poor neck and shoulders, so Jake replaced it. Poor guy. He wants me to like the car as much as he does! The new seat is definitely more comfortable than the old one, but still not as comfortable as my mom's Dodge Durango.

If I had a dream vehicle it would be a new Dodge Durango. I LOVE my mom's! Give me 4 wheel drive, and at least a V-6 any day!!! I love the power and durability of it. It's comfortable, everybody has plenty of leg room, and we can all go somewhere. On our last trip through Canada we all fit in it, and did very well.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Books

Yup, I'm reading. I may not have said anything about it lately, but I hope I'm never not reading. I enjoy the escape of reading. I enjoy the lands I can visit. So, this is one of the books I've particularly enjoyed lately:


The Boys are Back in Town by Christopher Golden

from the cover:

From a master of horror, dark fantasy, and suspense comes a compelling and uniquely original work of paranormal suspense in which one man finds himself trapped in a web of ever-shifting reality which threatens to remake the whole of the world -- unless he can find a way to stop it.
For Will James, facing his tenth high school reunion is far from his finest hour, especially since his life has not gone exactly as he planned. Dumped at the altar by his high school sweetheart and with his dreams of being a prize-winning reporter dashed by his job at a Boston tabloid, he is not sure he is ready to face his former peers.But what he does find at the reunion is far more than he bargained for. He soon learns that one of his buddies had died several years back -- even though Will had received an e-mail from him only a few days before. It is not long before other people Will was convinced were alive are turning out to be dead as well, or married to other people, or childless where they used to have children. And new memories are swarming in to replace what Will is convinced was his old life, until he no longer knows what is real and what is not. The only thing he does know for certain is that he has to figure out why he alone remembers snatches of another life before everything dissolves into this new, darker reality.


I loved this dark fantasy novel. Excellent writing, excellent story, great twists and turns.

Bike Ride

Last Sunday we all went for a long bike ride...
Down to the river and to a little park. Where the girls played and played while we sat on a bench and canoodled.













Those are pinecones in her hand...





Mobsters


I've fallen into the hole of the GAMING world.
Not something I thought I'd ever do...

I haven't been blogging 'cuz I've been playing Mobsters on MySpace. I finish my one or two hours of jewelry making in the evening and hop over to the computer for some mobbing.
And I've been on there for hours...
Crazy.
Not something I expected EVER to do.

I think it really fits in with the whole 'I've been depressed' thing.
Money is tight. My schedule is tight.
My health is not good. My back, neck and ankle hurt.
I've gained so much weight this last year.
I'm frustrated with the choices Jake is making.
My jewelry hasn't been selling like I want it to.

And it's ALL out of my control.
I can't exercise 'cuz it hurts my ankle.
I can't make people buy my stuff.
I can't make Jake do what I want him to. (Although I can pout, whine, and generally drive him crazy, this is not an effective means of getting my way!)
I can't magic up more money.
I can't eliminate school for the girls, nor do I want to. (Which is a good thing, 'cuz they drove me crazy this week when they were home sick from school!)
The Stash is closing, which takes away one of the places we've displayed our stuff. Plus, it gives us a definite way of defining how bad the economy is up here & everywhere else.
The gaming has given me an escape from how bad I feel. I can go away to a world where I can make TONS of money, beat up anybody I want to, and grow in success and power. Pretty cool.
Hmmm. Just not effective in making me feel any better.

Which blogging does. (makes me feel better, I mean.)
And spending time with my family does.
And making jewelry does.
And writing does.
And exercising does. (I've got to figure out a way around this stupid ankle issue!!! I've got a feeling the extra bit of weight I've gained this year makes my ankle even worse, and then it all becomes a downward spiral of pain and weight gain...)
And spending time with God does.
And spending time drawing, painting, singing, acting, working at church does...

So, perhaps gaming is not the best answer for my problems right now...
Hmmmm...

Sick, sick, sick...

Everybody is sick here...
Abigail's had the flu and been home from pre-school.
Deborah and Jake have a cold and are both CRANKY.
I've got a little bit of a cold, but not much.

We didn't go to church today 'cuz of the sick.