After we move to Minnesota everything will be better. After we move back to Belgium I will read my bible every day. After Gabri?l stops waking up at night I will be happier and more rested. After the summer starts we will be more relaxed. When I am older I will be more patient.
When the bread is done baking I will take time to play with Abel.
When I’ve been going to church here for a longer time I will know everybody and then maybe I will be more involved and talk to people and feel more at home. When this day is over I will snap out of my grumpy mood,?when the laundry is caught up and the house is clean I will be more peaceful.
But it is now that counts.
If I don’t take time now, when will it be? If I don’t stop behaving like a 6 year old now, when will I, and how many words will I have said by the time I stop that I will lie awake about in nights to come?
The only after I want to think about is the after this life. The eternity we will spend […]
One of my favorite series is the Daughters of the faith series by Wendy Lawton.
They are like the Heroes of the faith series, but for young girls about young girls. Unlike the “Heroes of the Faith”, these are not biographies, but more like fictional stories, inspired by the life of these girls. In each epilogue there are some facts about the main character, as well as what happened when they grew up. I love the way?Wendy?Lawton wove stories about the life of these real and inspiring girls.
It is written for ages 8-12, but some 23 year-olds still love them. They are short and easy to read, ideal for younger girls.?Still, I re-and-re-and-re-read these lovely books of girls that really lived and were so plucky, faithful,?courageous.
There are not many books I recommend for everybody and that I cannot find anything inappropriate in, but these are. Innocent and uplifting, we see the character’s faith and personal relationship with God unfolding and deepening.
A big bonus is all the historical information you get. I am always so inspired, my curiosity piqued, that I look up all I can find ?on whichever book I just read. These books would […]
I loved this short story by Amy Jane.?A very refreshing read, the story is about trust and forgiveness with a sweet touch of romance mixed in.
Felicity, the main character, is learning how to forgive some people in her life, and needs the courage and faith to trust again.?Too many people who were supposed to always be there for her, left her instead and throughout the story we see her dealing with this.
I loved the wholesomeness of this story, and the sweet gestures that make Felicity a lady are truly inspiring. The way it is a given to help an elderly?neighbor?move boxes, and the way her?neighbor?sits besides her and shares about his life were heart warming. At some points I got a?whiff?of Pollyanna, which is never a bad thing in my opinion. Felicity is a lot deeper than the always-happy-and-smiling Pollyanna and thus more?relate-able.
I also love the relationship Felicity has with her brother. Caring and kind, a real friendship exists between them. No sibling hatred here!
The length of the book is 23 pages.
I am excited to have Amy here for a visit:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself, Amy!
I’m the type of person […]
Mike was in India for 2 weeks. The day before he came home I drove to his parents house since that is closer to the airport.
As I left home, I discovered the GPS was not working.
Now, of course, I’ve been to my parents (in law) a thousand times, but I’m very (very) bad with roads and cars and directions and all that kind of stuff.?As Lucy says in Narnia when Edmund says the worst thing about girls is that they don’t carry a map in their heads: ‘That’ s ?because our heads have something in them’.?But I thought I’d try. I could always stop and ask for directions to some stranger. (Yeah right)
After driving for a little while, while praying very, very hard, I thought… God wants to use this to tell me something.?I always want to know ahead of time what’s going to happen. I worry about things that might happen in 20 years.?The way I understood it, God wanted to tell me that He’s in control and He’ll tell me where to go and what to do the moment He thinks I should know.
So here I was, driving along, frantically pushing the power button […]
Home. Home is at my grandparents. The one place that was always the same, no matter how many times we moved. The place where so many childhood memories still linger. I can almost see us. My sister, brother and me, running around.
But then they moved. I was 18. But I still needed my childhood refuge!
Home. Is us. our jolly family of 7. Us 3 oldest ones talking to loud, mom thumping a broomstick on their bedroom door to shut us up.my sister climbing on our bunkbed with her cup of tea when i wanted to sleep, me grumbling but loving it. Sitting for hours at the table, drinking coffee and talking, laughing, having heated discussions with little children running and climbing around us.
Home is the dirty old pond on the farm in the west flanders. The creek and the pantry in minnesota. The living room in North Carolina and the rope swing on the tree in the old house where Loorke was born and where Seppe died, our dear little goat that we bottle fed because his mama had died soon after she had him.
We moved grew up, got married. But home is in our hearts, […]
My mom raised 7 children. well, 4 of them aren’t grown up yet. And even the 3 oldest will never grow very much. But at least we are adults. Or we pretend to be. But the point that I wanted to make is…my mom is a hero. Abel was smearing his food in his hair. Gabri?l was screaming. He was as red as a little tomato. And I felt very much like…. Well, like doing a whole lot of things I shouldn’t. And maybe I also felt like screaming along with him. But then mom came. And the sisters. (and the brothers.) My two sisters went and cleaned the whole living room up, just like that! And swept the floor, too. Mom took care of Abel. 5 minutes later the food was in his little belly, out of his hair, and he was happily running around again. Mom was holding her little namesake and he enjoyed doing a very pathetic little after-cry while his grandma held him and cuddled him. And I got a head again! And a clean house! Before we knew it they were gone again,but what a big difference they had made! […]
When I hear the word, it sounds negative. Boring. Everyday-ish. Just…
But I don’t think it has to be.
Didn’t God make the ordinary, too?
Doesn’t He love it? And won’t it seem better in 20 years? Now, I’m so in the middle of today. It wears me out. ?I don’t want to change another diaper. I want to sleep. I want to go to the bathroom. By. My. Self. Is today special? No, not really. Unless you can count the fact that today I got even more spit over me a special event.
I will miss all of this. Just not now. Because I have it. Because I also have the hard parts.
Now, it feels ordinary. In 20 years, it will seem so special and dear.
And I want to find the ordinary wonderful. I want to thank God for these special days of smiles and diapers and messes and crying raising little beings.
I want to love the ordinaryness of it all.
Enjoy it to the fullest even when I feel like screaming louder then the 4-month-old.
Make memories.
Build relationships with these little men that will so soon be big men. Make their childhood ordinary, […]
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