Repeating the Experiment {Colorful Ice Balls, Take Two}

I haven't been making much time this week to blog.  My excuse has been different every evening; tonight I'll mention that I didn't have much time for blogging because I was busy tackling a mountain.  A paperwork mountain, that is.  It was getting higher by the day and was threatening to topple over and attack me--if not my body, at least my mind.  Isn't it something how peace of mind can be so easily stripped away by nagging, undone tasks?

I didn't succeed in dismantling the mountain entirely, but I chopped it down to size and will (hopefully) make more time tomorrow to pound away at it, one piece of paper at a time.  But now, on to happier, more cheerful thoughts!

It's been cold here recently, like single-digit cold, occasionally even 0-degree cold.  A couple of days ago, God gave us a gorgeous snowfall, and now our ground is beautiful and white--my favorite color to see in the wintertime.  :)  This cold snap reminded me of something we did in the last cold snap, a couple of weeks ago by now, I guess.  The boys reminded me of our ice ball project that we first attempted last winter; and since they were so eager to do it again, I said, "Why not?"  We learned a few things from that original endeavor--first, to use a lot of food coloring if we wanted the colors to be dark, and second, to leave the water in the balloons for a very long time before cutting off the balloons because the water takes much longer to freeze than we first thought it would.  What I SHOULD have learned, but DIDN'T, was to use rubber gloves when doing this project.  I can't believe I FORGOT, but indeed I did, and my wildly colorful hands (even more vivid than the last time!) bore testimony to my mistake.  Tsk, tsk.

Stained hands aside, here are the results of our cold-weather-is-good-for-something project!  :)

After the balls had been laying out on the grass for a while, I went out to check on them again and noticed that, similar to last time, the color was beginning to drain from the top.

I had a little helper with me.  :)

We enjoyed looking out the front window occasionally at the ice balls to see how pale they were getting and how much they were shrinking.

And then they were gone.

But I wouldn't be surprised if, come another cold spell, we make them again.  After all, they're so easy, even Miss I-Am-Not-a-Crafter-AT-ALL (uh, that would be me) can do them!

I just have to remember the gloves...  :)

Wordless Wednesday {Beauty in the Bathtub}

Morsels

My heart sank a little as I watched Jeff and the boys pull out of our driveway in the minivan this morning.  They were on their way to a church service, and I?  I was remaining here at home with Moriah, both of us having been afflicted yesterday with the cold that Tobin and Shav caught earlier this week.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind at all the opportunity to stay here at home with my favorite girl.  :)  But today, I was a little sad because I wanted to receive spiritual food to strengthen me for my walk with the Lord.

It wasn't long at all until God gave me my first bite.

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I sat down at the computer with Moriah on my lap, somewhat randomly started watching someone's video of a birth story, and heard a song in the background of that video--a song I'd never (consciously) heard before.  When I looked it up, I discovered that it was this...
My soul worshiped as my spirit cried, "Yes!  Be near, oh God!  This is the cry of my heart!"  The line "Your nearness is to us our good" made me pause and reflect; and throughout the rest of the day, this song circled back through my thoughts.

"Be near, oh God," as I change the sheets that someone wet last night.

"Be near, oh God," as my sick little daughter clings to me like a koala for 40 minutes straight, my shoulder getting soaked from her runny nose and slobber.

"Be near, oh God," as I clean poop out of the bathtub (that hasn't happened for a while, but tonight it did).

"Be near, oh God," in all the moments of life, especially these times of simple service in the most humble of circumstances to the least of these.

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Another bite of spiritual food was given to me this evening as I sat in the bathroom watching Moriah take her bath (this was before the poop incident).  ;-)  I was reading my daily portion in The One-Year Bible, and it just so happened that the psalm for the day was 27--a psalm I have read countless times before.  But you know what got me this time?  This.  "One thing I ask from the Lord...to gaze on the beauty of the Lord."

To gaze on His beauty?  What does that mean?  Do I do that enough?  Do I realize how beautiful He is?  Other adjectives quickly come to mind when I think of God: powerful, strong, loving, present, involved, etc.  But beautiful?

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While Moriah took her morning nap, I sat down with a cup of French vanilla coffee, a handful of tortilla chips, and a book I grabbed off the shelf--A Man Called Norman by Mike Adkins.  I got a good start in the book until I finally forced myself to put it down and get on to other things; but tonight after all the kids were in bed, I sat down with it again--and with a bowl of frozen sour cherries covered in milk; I love to eat while I read!  ;-) --and finished it.  That was a big ol' helping of spiritual food!  I felt challenged in my level of service to those outside my comfort zone and in my ability to hear God's voice and step out boldly in obedience.  I needed to hear those challenges.

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Towards the end of the book, Mike Adkins brings up Isaiah 58, a chapter I've long been familiar with in regards to right fasting; but tonight, the end of verse 7 reached out and punched me squarely in the nose--in the best possible way, of course.  ;-)  In response to God's question, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen?" one of the answers is "...not to turn away from your own flesh and blood."  Though I never knew Isaiah mentioned it, that principle has been one of the major forces guiding our decisions during the past nine years.

Sometimes we've second-guessed ourselves.

Sometimes God reaches down and speaks.  "Yes," He says, "you are walking in the path I've chosen for you.  You are doing what I desire."

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I didn't get to go anywhere today.  I didn't get to raise my voice in songs of worship with others.  I didn't get to hear a preacher preach or see a soul baptized or share a fellowship meal.  But God met me, and He fed me.

And my heart cry: be near, oh God?

He was--and is.

A Little Bit of Elastic...

...makes a big, big difference.  :)

This is how Moriah usually looks when she wakes up.

 And this is how she looks a few minutes later after I've had a chance to make a quick ponytail for her to get her hair out of her face.

 In the four months since I first tried to fix Moriah's hair in this way, she's gotten used to it enough to sit still long enough for me to get the ponytail made.

 The next step will be for her to cooperate long enough for me to actually use a comb and neaten it up a bit. But baby steps...  :)

Our sweet little Pebbles.  :)

On a Snowy Night

The other night, I read stories to Tobin and Shav, hugged and kissed them, tucked them into bed, turned out the light, then blew them a final kiss as I walked out their door.

A few minutes later, I glanced outside and realized IT WAS SNOWING!  I suppose I should have paid more attention to the weather forecast because, although I vaguely remembered hearing something about a "wintry mix," I really had no idea it might actually snow, so it was all a big surprise--a delightful surprise, as snow always is for me.

Snow is enough of a rarity around here that I just couldn't let the boys lie in bed, not knowing about the snow, so I went back upstairs to tell them about it.  Tobin, who wasn't feeling particularly well, had already fallen asleep; but Josiah, David, and Shav got up and came to the bathroom window...

...to look out on the beauty descending upon us.

I wasn't sure which was more lovely: the peaceful, falling snow or the beloved boys watching it.

 Then I decided that the boys take the cake; they are more beautiful to my eyes!  :)

After the boys were back in bed, I continued to watch the snow fall...

 ...and I wished for a little of the ability of Snowflake Bentley so that I could more adequately capture with a camera the absolute wonder of what my eyes were seeing in real life.

The next day, most of the snow melted away, leaving little to remind us of the snowy night we had just had.  Poor as they are, I'm still glad to have these pictures to remember it by, because there's just something special about a snowy night.  :)

So She DOES Talk?

Up until now, Moriah has mostly communicated with grunts; and I've laughingly wondered if she thinks herself part of a people group that only uses one syllable to communicate, but changes the meaning solely on the basis of inflection!  She'd fit in pretty well there.  :)

I haven't worried about her relative lateness to acquire speech, but I have been eager for her to begin to talk because I know what a whole new (happy!) world opens up to a child who can start to verbally express herself.  So I've prayed that God would open her mouth, loose her tongue, and give her the gift of language--all in His good timing.

Well, well, well.  It seems that Little Miss Grunts-a-Lot is on the verge of really beginning to talk.  The verge, I say.  Not all the way there, but getting a whole lot closer than she was a month or so ago.

Have a listen?

Well done, my sweet girl!  We're so proud of you!!  :)

Wordless Wednesday {How Jeff's Love Makes Me Feel}