He remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103 is one of my favorite Psalms. I love all of it, but for some reason verses 13 and 14 have always resonated with me.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

We humans put so much on ourselves. We expect so much from each other and from ourselves. We should be always bettering ourselves; we should be always aiming for perfection, though we know it’s unattainable. I know what the perfect ‘me’ looks like. She’s a loving wife that gets up before or at least with her husband to make coffee and breakfast and send him happily off to work. She’s a hardworking homemaker who keeps the laundry machines running and the clothes ironed and put away. She’s a mom who makes a healthy and yet tasty meals for her children. Her house is always clean and tidy, ever ready for someone who might drop by.



She is the perfect mom who is patient and always at the ready with a soft answer and encouragement. She is a homeschool mom who knows just what and how her kids need to learn, and who never gets exasperated with learning setbacks. This perfect wife/homemaker/homeschool mom would also never be swayed by parenting or homeschooling fads but would know just what the Lord would have her do at any given time.

Just imagine? Food always cooked and on the table when it’s supposed to be. Clothes ironed and ready for a busy husband to put on when he wakes up and heads out the door. A surety of thought when parenting and educational decisions need to be made. A made bed. Every day.

And yet…

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

He, the one I need to please the most, remembers that I am dust. He knows how I am formed. He knows how my joints ache and my thoughts can be confused. He is compassionate. Surely we, who are so much less than Him, can offer that same compassion to ourselves and those around us.

13

I have set this post to post at exactly 1:20 am. At this very moment I will have 3 teenagers. Oh my stars!



Today is my Eve's birthday. My first daughter. I was so surprised when the sonogram tech told me it was a girl. After 2 boys and my husband being one of 4 boys I really thought I'd be the mom of only boys. So skeptical was I, we painted the room green and stuck with a pretty gender neutral nursery.



Well that tech was right. Exactly 13 years ago today God gave me my first daughter.



She was different from the boys from the beginning. She was a mama's girl. She liked to be held, she liked to be cuddled and she liked to have her way!



She did not like elevators, water, being without her blanket or being left with anyone other than mom. Even dad.

She spoke in sentences at 12 months old. She taught herself to read at 4. She's the best speller in the house, bar none, and she's a pretty darn good writer too.

I think God for the gift of this daughter 13 years ago. What would I do without her?

Pretty, here I come!

In approximately one week my family, sans the adult child, will be going to this place. This place where all the pretty and the cool and the mountains live. I love this place.



I have much to do to prepare for this trip and only one week left to do it in. But I will keep looking at this photo and remind myself that it is all worth it.

The post in which she brags.

In a few days, we will be once again hopping in the ol' RV and heading for Colorado. This year though, it's a little bittersweet. This year, for the first time ever, we're going on a family vacation without all of the family. Will will be staying home. He's got a real 9-5 job this summer. In fact, I must take a moment to brag.

His Uncle's word got him the job. In this economy a teenagers your only hope is nepotism! He is working for the same large company, but in a completely different division. He does not ever see his uncle. Both Uncle and Will try to be careful not to discuss their relationship.

Well, it seems things are tight with this company as with all companies and they laid off all their summer hires...except Will. He is the only summer hire they kept. They laid off people hired before him and they even laid off one of the bosses kid.(higher up in the company than Uncle)

Will's foreman told him, when Will asked who he had to thank for keeping his job, that he (the foreman) asked to keep him. He had to do a little convincing, but he was able to swing it. He said Will's a good worker and a quick learner.

I am beyond proud. You put your heart and soul into raising your kids and you pray you are preparing them for the real world. You pray that you're not forgetting anything, you pray that you're not majoring on the minors and leaving something important out. You pray you're doing it right.

I know I can't take credit for the man Will's becoming. If I did that I'd have to take responsibility for all his mistakes too! ;) But, to see those small moments where what you've worked so hard to teach them, benefits them. Those moments are golden.

Thank you for indulging in my proud mama moment.

Teenage Driver Number 2

Yesterday was Bob's birthday. He is 16. He is now out driving my car. Without me.

It's amazing how fast this time comes around. He was just a baby. See? Isn't he cute?

That was taken yesterday! Yesterday, I tell you! And now he looks WAY more like the man in that photo than the baby.

I feel so blessed to have Bob. He is a hard worker, and an all around helpful young man. I could go on and on about what a wonderful kid he is. How he's been running his own, very successful landscaping business for years, owining all his own tools and hiring his friends as contract labor.


How he bought his own truck, with his own money before he was even old enough to drive it.

How he's overcome his dyslexia to the point that he tested high enough on the entrance test at the local community college in the Fall to take College English. How he's actively persuing training for the carreer he wants when he graduates (Fireman)

How he's a man of God and leader among his peers. Sometimes I can't believe that God has blessed me with such amazing sons (his brother's has a similar list of accomplishments, but his birthday is a few weeks away, more on that later!)

Whoever said, in regards to raising children, that the days are long and the years are short knew their stuff.
















And now...this. It happened overnight.

God Bless America

We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls. ~Robert J. McCracken

Happy 4th, my American friends.