Sunshine

It was one of those Florida days when it is hard to tell if it is going to downpour or just sprinkle off and on. Mandi was scheduled to sing at an outdoor event that afternoon. The event coordinator told me that the sound guy had almost shut it down twice because of the weather. She didn’t know if Mandi would get to sing.

I watched as the band scheduled before Mandi was setting up. The sound guy rushed from the stage to his sound equipment, saying, “It’s going to rain again.” He adjusted the vinyl tarps to protect his equipment from the misting rain. He kept watching the sky as it darkened and the wind picked up.

Mandi‘s turn came and I found my place at the side of the stage. From there I could see Mandi, the audience, and a nice view of the lake.

As Mandi began playing, the sun began shining. There was no more rain. The sun setting on the lake was beautiful. It framed the view of everything I saw. And I saw sunshine. I saw it in Mandi, a happy little girl singing, playing, and swinging her feet. I saw it on the faces of the crowd smiling, clapping, and swaying to the beat.

And I thought to myself, what a wonderful world!

Melted

Maybe it is because she is my last baby. Maybe it is because she has the cutest smile ever. Maybe it is because she has her first loose tooth, (which she is ecstatic about by the way).

But today I today I looked at her teeth and was overwhelmed my their cuteness.

You can imagine my delight and surprise when I read this today in our read aloud, Peter Pan.

"She had come to save him, to give him her nest, though there were eggs in it. I rather wonder at the bird, for though he had been nice to her, he had also sometimes tormented her. I can suppose only that, like Mrs. Darling and the rest of them, she was melted because he had all his first teeth."

How lucky Olivia is to have a mom who is sometimes "melted because (s)he has all her first teeth."

Hold Me by Jamie Grace ukulele cover by Mandi

God Girl by Jamie Grace cover by Ukulele Mandi

God's Heartbeat

It was just the two of us. The others had gone to Night of Joy. We had already bought a new outfit and eaten supper. Now we were in a quiet house, with a few hours before bedtime. As we sat on the kitchen floor, chatting, she said, "Let's play the ukulele. I know how to play a few chords."

She ran to get it, unzipped the case and said, "It might need to be tuned." I smiled as she put the tuner on the ukulele and plucked a string. Then she announced, "The A string is good."

How does she know these things? The answer to that question flooded me with emotion. As she showed me the chords that she knew, all I could think about was how beautiful this moment was.

Yes, I do enjoy watching my 6 year old play an instrument, but the movie playing in my head was so much more precious to me. I was seeing a little sister watching her big sister play the ukulele. I was seeing a big sister hand her little sister the ukulele and show her how to play. And I was thinking about how valuable that time was.

The value was not in the information learned, but in how it was learned. It was learned through a relationship. God's heartbeat. I saw God's heartbeat that day!

That Girl!

My girl, Mandi, has taken to music like a fish takes to the water. When I watch her play, I get the feeling that every mother loves to get. I get the feeling that she is doing what she was created to do. She works hard, like 9 hours in a day hard, but she wouldn't do it if she didn't love it.

In one of my many searches for songs for her to sing, I found a worship singer named, Mandi Mapes. A line in her bio got me thinking. Mandi Mapes wrote, " Now, the joy that I have in Him surpasses any short lived happiness I’ve ever experienced in this life and it is my greatest privilege to take my lips and my guitar and make His glory known in coffee shops, music venues and living rooms all over the world. "

I thought, "You know, when I hear Mandi Mapes sing, I get the feeling that she is doing what she was created to do and now she is connected to her Creator. What could be more beautiful! All the distractions, lies, and destructive behavior that the enemy would have for her are being pushed out of the way. She is living in the way that her Creator intended for her to live and it is a beautiful thing. As she grows in the Lord, it will only become more beautiful!"

This is my prayer for my Mandi, that as she does her thing, making music, people will get the feeling that she is doing what she was created to do, that she knows her creator, that she has great joy in knowing her creator, and that they want to know Him, too.

Not only that, but that they will be inspired to find something that they were created to do, work hard at becoming great in it and bring glory to God in doing it.

I want to be like That Girl!

Mandi teaching Olivia to play Zaccheus on the Piano

This makes me happy!

Mandi plays Did You Ever Talk to God Above on the ukulele

Mandi plays Hold Us Together on the Ukulele

Books

I remember the sound of my shoes tapping on the terrazzo floor and the smell of dusty shelves. Everything was taller than me and no one talked to me. But I loved this place. My mom loved this place, so I did, too.

I do not remember ever checking out a book. But I do remember looking at the rows and rows of books and knowing that they were all there for me. They were all there for me to discover. They must be important if someone had taken the time to organize them on the shelves. I couldn't read yet, but I was drawn to all those books.

Now I find myself drawn to old books. The ones with black line drawings are the best. They may not seem like exciting books, but sometimes I discover an old way of thinking or speaking connected to a timeless truth. I feel connected to the time and the people who lived in that time. It feels like a treasure hunt.

The treasure I am finding is priceless.

Mandi plays Jamaica Farewell

Mandi came up with the arrangement. It reminds me of a mission trip I took when I was 17.

Thank you MCT!

Michael Clay Thompson is a man who has changed the way I educate my children. Maybe I should say, has confirmed my intuition about teaching my kids. He is a man who loves the English language and is able to convey his feelings to his readers. He writes in a way that is not insulting to a student's intelligence, yet he makes it easy to understand his point.

This past school year, I decided to focus on his first level of language arts books with my three oldest kids.

Now at the end of the year, their messy notebooks are filled with similes and poems that they have written. It is writing that they can be proud of.

They can tell you the most horrible grammatical mistake you can make in a sentence.

They have started to notice if a writer is a good writer or not.

They have started to appreciate classic literature.

They have started to value poetic elements and recognize some poets.

They have started a journey and I am thrilled to be taking it with them!

2011 Fair Elementary Division First Place Winner

She pulled us aside and said, " I want you to know, you have been given a gift. You will always remember hearing this. Never sing anything that you do not feel in your heart. You can not give anything to the people, if you do not know it yourself."

Dick and I had been telling her, you will be there to give a gift to the people in the crowd. You want to give them the best gift you can. That is why you need to practice so hard and pick a song with perfect message.

She took our advice, listened to our suggestions and gave a passionate gift to the people at the county fair.

New Dog?

Our 4-H dog trainer informed me that she thought we needed a different dog. She was afraid that Lyla was going to hurt someone. She had seen the way Lyla responded to Grace, when Lyla did not want to obey anymore. I gulped and asked her what I should do next.

She said, " I will trade you dogs. I have a litter of puppies that will be ready in a few weeks and I have some adult dogs that might work."

After waiting a long week and a half, we finally made the switch. We now have a 3 year old boxer that we are trying out for a few weeks. She is the perfect dog. She has fallen in love with Grace and Grace feels the same way. We porbably will keep her. We just have to find out the details invloved. The trainer wants/has to breed her one more time, because of an agreement with another breeder. I need to know what money, time, and responsiblity will be required of us.

The dog's name is Rainy and her father is a world famous dog. He has more titles than I can name his puppies are sought after because of their temperment. We are blessed for the opportunity to have her.

The Eight Pals by Levi

The eight parts of speech were waling along when they saw a man taking some money from an old lady.

"Look," said verb.

"Where," asked adverb.

"Over," said preposition.

"...there," finished pronoun.

"Oh, no," exclaimed interjection.

"Vile, " said adjective.

"But," said conjunction.

"...handsome," said adjective.

"Man," said noun.

"Nice," said adjective.

"Huh," asked interjection.

"Man," repeated noun.

"Nice," repeated adjective.

"Oh," said interjection.

Then they all realized the old lady was giving the man the money.

Christmas Joy

These cousins love to be together. This Christmas, they have giggled, shopped, performed, tried each other's clothes on, sang, and here they are dancing together.

The Joy of Giving 2010

I had the chance to pick presents for 30+ kids. A member of our church shops for deals all year and donates items for prizes and presents. So this year at our Christmas dinner, we were able to give each kid a present. Since I am the children's pastor, I was in charge of deciding who got what. It was neat to realize that since I have a relationship with each kid, I knew what they would like. Each conversation we have had, made it easier and a joy to pick out their present. The joy came from knowing each child. The joy came from the relationship.

I am thanking God for the joy of giving, the joy of relationships this Christmas!

So should I just quit now?

There is is scene in the movie Akeela and the Bee, after her first spelling bee. She has just blown the competition away and it is quite obvious that she has natural talent. An adult is talking to her about the one word that she missed and she blurts out,"So should I just quit now?"

That question rings in my mind quite often and I have to chuckle at myself. Like last week at our first 4H club meeting. Ruff and Ready is our club name and you can guess it is a dog training club. We met the dog trainer for the first time. She is a boxer and boston terrier specialist, has 17 of them at home, and shows them all over the country. She immediately started playing with Lyla and when it was her turn to speak, she looked at Grace and me and said, "This one is going to be a handful. " Then she gave me a wide eyed stare. The one that says more than the words spoken.

I gulped, wondering, "So should we just quit now?"

Grace apparently didn't read into the trainers words like I did. On the way home, she said, "Lyla did really well, mom. I am excited.

So, we move forward. Lyla isn't the only one learning.

A New Perspective

I was talking to our worship leader about the songs we sing. He said he was tired of a certain song and I chimed in that I was tired of many of the songs we sing. He said he wasn't really tired of them, he just wanted to have more variety. We proceeded to start the service and I stood in my normal position on the left side of the stage, behind the keyboard.


I played and sang along and noticed the young lady visiting for the first time. I only knew her name and that she had just gotten out of jail. She obviously didn't know the words, but it didn't seem to matter. She was listening intently, singing some, bowing her head some, crying some, raising her hands some, and nodding in agreement.

It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time. When you are in the ministry, this is one of those moments you live for. You give everything you have over and over again for moments like these.

Those songs that I said I was tired of, now had new meaning. I had a new perspective.

What's new?

Mandi, my 8 year old, can bake a loaf of bread, by hand, from memory, all by herself. It turns out great!

Levi has started reading classic literature for pleasure, like Robinson Crusoe, Sherlock Holmes, and Kidnapped.

Mandi led worship at church last week. Our worship leader was out of town. She played the piano and sang 4 songs. She even played quietly while her daddy was praying. I wanted to do that at her age but didn't have the confidence. She is very comfortable doing it.

I am so enjoying being frugal. It leads to a much simpler life and I get so much more done. We are eating healthier, spend more time together and the kids are learning more about living real life. I keep thinking about how lazy we Americans are. We will pay people to do so many things that we could easily do ourselves. We pay people to entertain us, when we could probably have much more fun if we would do it ourselves and we would be more connected to the ones we love. We pay for people to cook our food. I am noticing how often we buy plastic in various shapes and forms. I am thinking about toys, containers, office supplies. The list goes on.