Kickin' it Up....Slowing it Down....Random Friday!!

Wow has it really been since Monday since I posted?!! What a slacker!! =)

This week has been a crazy one for me. I have not been feeling well. Don't worry I didn't get what Dak had, nope still thinking his was Tick Borne Illness. No, I have had low temp (95.9) and low blood pressure (89/50) and just generally feeling bad. No energy, ya know just yucky. Well I went to the doc, and she did some blood work, and changed some medicine around and I'm starting to feel a little better. It will probably take a little while to get to feeling like myself again, but hopefully this medicine will help.

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Here it is the 18th and I have not posted my verse for the next two weeks. First of all, let me recite my last MV:

Philippians 4:8: "So finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."

Wow has that verse ever been needed in my life over the last two weeks. I am so thankful for the Scripture Memorization Team through LPM. It has so changed my life this year. I honestly don't know where I'd be in this crazy year without some Truth in my head to guide me when things get crazy.

Well, this time, God has lead me to verses in Isaiah that just want to make me shout!! Do ya ever just want to Shout for the LORD?!! Well here is your chance!! Just give Him a shout of praise as you read these two verses.

Isaiah 12:2-3: "Surely God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. 2 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation."

Hallelujah!! Now if that's now worth "Kickin' up" some praise for our LORD nothing is!!! HE is our salvation!! Aren't you glad you aren't your own salvation ~~ or anyone else's for that matter ~~ I've often thought what a mess we would all be in if salvation was left up to me. Jesus bore it all on the cross. Every pain, every hurt, every fear, every SIN ~~ He bore it all for you and for me. He is my salvation, my strength and my song!!! Hallelujah!!! Glory to His Name!!

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Well, today the kids (C & T) close on their first home. Do ya'll remember the first home you ever bought? Yep, I do, sitting in it right now. I heart our home. It is such a haven of rest and peace for us. It isn't great big and fancy, no it is just the right size for us. Comfy, cozy and cottage...yep love it!! We are so happy for them and will be at the signing this afternoon and then guess what? Oh go on take a guess!! Yep Sir Cuteness himself is coming home with us for the weekend. Oh be still my Cuteness lovin' heart ~~ I can't wait to get my hands on those curls!! He is such a joy and delight to us!!

This weekend, today included, the high is to be 80 degrees. The high in the middle of July in MO 80 degrees ~~ get out of town!!! Beautiful!! So we plan on "Slowing it Down" a bit... and getting Scoot out of doors and into the great unknown (okay the Nature Center), but to him it will be The Great Unknown!!! Lots of stuff to explore and do ~~ yay for lovely weekends!!

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And just on a Random note: The garden is bringing me such joy!! I feel like I've learned so much more about gardening my second year than I did my first. I'm so glad ~~ I always want to keep learning. Our tomatoes have started ripening, and hopefully next week (toward the later part) we can put up some more salsa. We opened up our first batch of this year last night......mmmmmmm it is sooooo good!!!

Hopefully next week, I'll be back to more regularly blogging. I have much to share with ya'll....recipes, book reviews, funny happenings and of course The Word!!!

Have a Blessed and Beautiful weekend,

Seriously....How many pictures can one post hold?!!!

This post is full of pics from last week and weekend...

Okay, so what do you think?

Is he feeling better?

I would say so.....

Heeheeheehee
Well here is our lil Scoot...
How cute is this munchkin I ask you?!!

Oh and I just love this pic of his soft curly hair.....


This is another fav....He's looking at his papa...
How cute is this?!!?! He loves his papa so....

Yep and here he is looking up at me....

He also, just happens to really love his nan nan

(which is what he is starting to call me from time to time ~~ how cute is he?!!)

In case your wondering, ummm yes there is water in that sink,

and yes that is a clothed baby in the sink......

ummm.......

Okay, so you're probably wondering if that is normal procedure around these parts...

Well only when you've had a bath in couscous first......

Please, let me explain.....
I made couscous with honey and soy milk for breakfast for me....

And for Scoot I made couscous with soy milk (minus the honey ~~ ya know honey and babies don't mix... anyway....)

and we had a lot of fun eating playing in our breakfast, by the time we were done we had it all over ourselves and our chair.

It was so fun!!!

I forgot to have hubs take pics of that, so instead I thought I'd take pics of clean up,

although it really just looks like he's playing, fully clothed, in a sink full of water, there really was couscous on us....really =)

Here's some more fun we had.

Ah yes baby and hubs on the trampoline ~~ so fun!!!

He's trying to decide if he likes it at this point!!

Look at this hair ~~ yep ~~ baby + trampoline = static!!!

I love this one.....look how he's clinging to his papa...

Look how sweet this is.....Cutie pie holding onto Cutie pie....

Look at this face...

We hope you enjoyed our weekend in pics.......

We heart you..... =)

Have a Blessed Monday,

Thought You Might Enjoy =)

Yes I will be blogging tomorrow on what g-babe is doing in the sink of water with clothes on .... yep more to come ~~

Hope you had a GREAT weekend,

Dawn

Time Marches On ...

Wednesday was July 8 and it marked 23 years that my first husband passed away. It was July 8, 1986 that he slipped from my grasp very unexpectedly. He left that morning and simply never returned. I watched him drive down the hill and out of sight. It was the last time I would see him alive. In so many ways it seems like yesterday, and in so many ways it seems like forever.

Time marches on ...

I saw his sister yesterday quite unexpectedly. I had to get a copy of my Birth Certificate, so I went to the local Health Department and the lady that came out to hand it to me was C, my first husband's sister. She said as she held the Birth Certificate in her hand before she came out, she thought, "I knew a Dawn once," I was sad.

Time marches on ....

Then when she saw me we hugged and talked. It was great!!! We talked of things not spoken of in years. It was fabulous and sad. It was a mixture of joy and pain, but mostly joy as we reminisced about our time with sweet David - hers as a sister - mine as a wife. Our lives forever woven together in a beautiful tapestry of love and time, pain and joy.

Time marches on ....

I allow myself to feel the pain now that I never used to allow myself to feel. Sometimes raw, sometimes scarred over, always real. But instead of focusing on the pain, I'd like to focus on the person for a moment. David was the funniest person I had ever met, even to this day. He just had a way about him. His sense of humor was over the top. He made me laugh daily. I remember thinking back then, that I couldn't believe that I got to spend the rest of my life with this person. He was great!!! But that wasn't meant to be.

Time marches on ....

I have never shared pictures of David and I on this blog. Even though it has been 23 years now since his passing, there is still pain, and that pain makes it hard to share, but today I wanted to just share a couple of poignant moments from our wedding. It was the happiest day of both of our lives up to that point. It would be the happiest day of his life period. I'm so glad that I was the one that got to share it with him.

I know you are probably wondering how Dick feels about David and my relationship with him. Well that is one of the most wonderful things about my relationship with Dick (my now husband of 10+ years), we both loved David. Dick was David's best friend, and he was the best man in our wedding. Weird I know, but it is such a source of comfort and strength for me now. I can talk about this larger than life person and Dick knows exactly what I'm talking about. We share him in our lives now, our thoughts and feelings of him and his passing so soon.

David was 22 years old when he left this world. He was killed in an accident on a job site. He was electrocuted. It was a very sad day. But....

Time has indeed marched on, and I am so grateful to God for allowing me the time that I got to spend with David. And I am so thankful that He brought Dick and I together many years later to share in the grief of that time and to celebrate life.

Let me just say that even though this was indeed a huge tragedy in my life, God is so good. He sustained me and kept me, even when I ran. And He brought me back to Him and now teaches me daily what it is to be His. I am so grateful for the love of my Savior.

Thank you for sharing these moments with me today. I am sad, but I am also very aware of how God blesses my life every day and He keeps helping me to see the blessing in this very big thorn.

Have a Blessed Friday,

Give Me Your Eyes...

Have you heard this song by Brandon Heath? I really like this song and it is one that is playing on my i-pod right now.

Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken hearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me Your eyes so I can see

This song is very convicting to me. Am I really seeing? What am I missing? This occurred to me this morning after I completed my study for the day. The study I'm currently involved in "Me, Myself, & Lies" is about our thoughts, and it is so important that my thoughts are on the right things. And I think that this is crucial to seeing things as my Abba Father sees them.

If my thoughts are focused on myself or my own situations, then I am not seeing things as God sees them, but if I have turned my thoughts over to Christ and am focused on Him, then I can start to see things as Christ sees them, and can I just say, that my friends is eye opening.

If I'm truly going to have love for humanity as Christ does then that puts feet to my faith. I must live it out. Ya know what I'm saying? It is so important that I see things as Christ sees them. It will change the way I live my life. And it starts with what I am allowing in my thought life. If I'm going to be thinking on the right things, then I need to be reading the Word and praying and reaching out to others. I know that these things will help me to see things, really see them.

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So those are just some things on my heart right now.

I have several pics on this post today, because I haven't really posted on much besides Dak's illness lately, and more on that at the end of this post.

Anyway..... on to some pics...

First I wanted to show you our study/prayer room that my husband has gotten completely finished (I think =) He built this room onto our house just a couple of months after we moved in. It was originally Chase's bedroom, but after he moved out it was empty for a while. And then Dak moved his room out here for a while, but then moved back to his old room, so this room was empty yet again.

This room is a very special room. It just has a special feel to it. We love it.

So now it is our prayer/study room. I wanted to show you where I study and pray and think and just breathe.

There isn't anything on the walls yet. That is coming. I have some ideas, but want to put up just the right thing.

This is the white board that I have a verse on from my current study, and then my current memory verse is under that with some of the Greek meanings of some of the words in my verse. It helps me to dig deeper.

I love digging deeper!!!

This is a table we have in there that have some family pics and flowers on it. The flowers are sitting on a runner that my grandmother made. I love it.

Well, I wanted to give you an update in pics on how the garden is growing.
This is walking out to it...

In the jungle, the mighty jungle.... =)


This is looking at it from the front.
Those are green beans right down front.
We probably have 1 or 2 more pickings before I'll be pulling up and planting more.

We (G and I) canned 6 pints of pickled green beans.
I'll let ya know how they turn out in two weeks.
That's when we can taste them.
If they are yummy, I'll put the recipe on my recipe blog.

Here are our lovely sunflowers.....

I heart sunflowers.....

Now look at the leaves on these babies....

Do you see the vine that is going through the hole on this leaf?

What could it be?...

Ummm yes, that would be a cucumber!!! How cute is that?! It cracks me up =)

Here are some of the tomatoes. They aren't red yet, but aren't they pretty?!?? =)

Here is our dill.... and I was worried it wasn't taking off....

silly me =)

And here is my biggest green pepper on the smallest plant.

Hmmm.... there is a lesson there...

These last two were taken a couple of years ago, but I wanted to show them because Dak downloaded them from pics on my camera that I thought were lost.

Oh I love that kid!!!

Okay, I know, I stick my head out in a lot of pics. I don't know why I do that.

Annoying?!! Nah just me =)

And then here is cutie pie Dak.

How adorable is this pic?!!

Oh how I love this child!!

So how is Dak?!! Well he has turned the corner and is doing very well!!!

And we am so thankful!!

Thank you so much for your prayers.

I think he is well on his way to recovery.

Have a Blessed Thursday,

Quick Update ...

Hi everyone, Today has been a crazy busy day. I just wanted to jump on and give an update on Dak. His fever is still down, really gone most of the day until just the last hour and now it is low grade, so I gave him some Tylenol so it will stay under control. He is still feeling REALLY puny. He just lays around and watches movies, reads or sleeps, and this is so unlike him. Usually he's out jumping on the tramp or at a friends pool or playing tennis, but he has been unable to do any of that since he's gotten sick. I will give it at least one more day, but if there is no improvement I will probably call the doc back. I'm just concerned that maybe there is more going on, so we really want to know of anything quickly~~ ya know what I mean? This may just take a while for him to get over. But hopefully one more day and he'll be feeling more like himself.

Well, I'm going to check on Dak and supper (in that order =) and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post on some things on my heart.

Thank you so much for praying,

Never so Glad to see Obnoxious!!!

Well with a title like that you must figure that the boy is better today ~~ YAY!! He is feeling better. He woke up with a temp of 100.3, but given the last four days (before yesterday) of over 103 degrees temp, we will take it as a sign he is getting better.

And another sign, yes he is being a little obnoxious this morning ~~ PRAISE THE LORD!!!!! When I say obnoxious, it is a mild obnoxious, but I'll take what I can get at this point =)

For days now he has wanted sour patch gummies, ya know those things that make you pucker at their name, little lone at the smell, well he has voiced his desire for such gummies to others besides us and each time I give him a sympathetic "NO". He's just been too sick. I didn't want that to come back up and bite him, ya know?!!

Well today as I was making my mental grocery list for the local market, he added sour patch gummies I was so happy, oh yeah and chicken strips and it's just 10:15 in the morning, yep sure sign he is feeling better.

He wanted me to pass along as well, that he was able to sit outside in the shade while I watered the garden this morning. He wanted me to tell you he had to sit in the shade because he is a vampire ~~ really it's because of the medicine he's on, no sun for 10 days ~~ vampire, too funny son!! =)

Well, I have 4th of July pics and more Bible study notes to share and other things to pass along, but for now I wanted to get this update on because ya'll have been so faithful to pray for Dak during this illness. Prayerfully he is on the road to recovery and will feel better as the week goes on. He does not get to go to CC camp this week and he is bummed, but hopefully he'll be well enough for the one later in the month.

Thank you again for all your prayers, they have meant more than I can express with mere words. Tick borne illness is nasty stuff, so please, if you have a tick take care of it right away and if you start showing symptoms of sickness please go to your doc right away and get on medicine necessary to get you through it as quickly as possible. I'm so glad we were pro-active. This can be very serious. If you want more information please go the CDC's website, I think its cdc.org

Have a Blessed Monday,