God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

William Cowper, from the Net Hymnal

I love this hymn.  I love how it reminds me to look for God's providence in all circumstances.  I love how it depicts God as smiling at His children, so often I am afraid He is frowning at me. We are so tempted to think God cannot not work now, I've made too much of a mess.  This is to complicated, to big, my enemies are to strong, etc.  But God is not thwarted, and just because He is taking His time doesn't mean He isn't working. He's just very thorough.  How much trouble we could save ourselves if we could just trust Him and be happy!

Turn of the Wheel

We live in a time where everything is feeling rather unstable. I no longer wonder to myself about where we will be in ten or twenty years. I wonder where we will be next year. Sometimes it feels as though the very ground is moving. I have to admit we've been shoring up a bit. And I'm wishing I was a more talented gardener. But mostly I'm looking around wondering how to interpret these days? Could these be the "last days" as the premillennialists say? Are all our efforts as moms and families to come to naught, plowed over by the careening train of socialism and government take over? I know that some days while I am busy training children in not only the Word, but "worldly cares" like political theory and career ideas and that sort of thing I can be a bit over come with a sense of futility. I am one that runs on vision. I need to feel like I am doing something meaningful, not just in the lives of my children and family, but for the good of the world, for the building of the Lord's Kingdom. And while I can't say I have an inside line to the mind of God, a though has occurred to me that this could be "a turn of the wheel" when those who are on the top will sink to the bottom and those who are on the bottom will be rising to the top. Right now it is very difficult for the righteous to break into any are of government, media, journalism, and more and more it is becoming so for the medical fields and higher teaching. Perhaps for the sake of His people the Lord is rotating the wheel? So that which is at the bottom can come to the top and that which is stifling the top will be broken up and brought down? I pray it is so. I know things are not going to get better tomorrow, maybe not for a very long time. But I must encourage myself and my children that the Lord does take care of the righteous. He knows how to tilt things in time of famine so His own can still be blessed. He is in charge of this wheel.

The Headmistress at The Common Room has an article up about the long forgotten by most of the population FLDS case.  Really amazing how that all happened.  We can't forget to pay attention to these things.  What was done to these people was unjustifiable.

Books

I tried to do a book entry a couple of weeks ago. It took two hours to do and I lost it due to link tag problems. Very discouraging. But my son and also my blogging friend Mrs. Darling said it was because I did it on the laptop and so I will try again on the desk top. If it works you will know because the entry will be up. If it doesn't work you won't know because I will smash this thing with a baseball bat and end my blogging career forever!!!

Anyway. I love reading to my kids. It has always been one of my favorite things about homeschooling. I love to share all the books I loved as a kid with them, and also finding new treasures. My boys now are 8, 6, 5 and 2. The Eight and six year old are really starting to be more interested in being read to and being able to follow chapter books. It is so much fun! It is also fun because as little boys thier interests are so much different than the girls. But we have been reading a lot lately. Here are a few offerings...


OK, this was for me. Some picture books just are. I loved it.


Lately the kids have been very interested in Japan. They also used these comics to teach themselves a few kanji characters.



And a few chapter books for the boys...

"Henry and Ribsy" is an old friend. The boys loved it. And I think it was my third or fourth time reading "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". But the boys were a fresh audience and so it was just as fun as the first. "Viking Adventure" is out of print, I got it from the library. But it looks like Amazon has it used. It was a good live history book for the boys. I would pick it up again.
Another great find is the LibriVox site. Oh, if you haven't discovered this, you simply must check it out! We are listening to Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall It is a wonderful recording. Owen especially requestsit-even in the evening for entertainment. Definately worth incorporating into a day. The chapters are very short, too, though like potato chips we don't ever consume just one.

And for me..

I love the vision Andrew Murray lays out for prayer. I go off and on with prayer, sometimes I seem to be praying all the time and at other times... alas... But this book is very encouraging and inspiring.

So... what's on your book shelf these days?

So what's been going on around here lately...

Rand and Forrest climbed Mt. Hood. (pictured in the header above) Well, they didn't make it all the way to the top. About an hour from the summit they encountered a blizzard, so they decided to come back down. I mean, what's the point of going up if you can't see ANYTHING? (I'm actually probably not a good person to answer that, because I can't see why I would want to climb a mountain anyway. As much as I do love Mt. Hood, I think everything that is interesting about it is to be seen below the timberline. I mean look at those photos. There are no trees, no moss, no pretty little creeks.. I digress..) But look at that grin on Rand. He eats this stuff up. Every picture of the climb he is grinning away like that. He so loves those mountains.

Forrest on the other hand I wasn't so sure of. At first he didn't seem so interested. More like, "Fine, yeah, if you want to climb a mountain, I'll go with you." But as the day approached and the guys watched videos about it (ones with helicopters crashing during rescue attempts, no less) he perked up a bit. Toward the end he was more like "I really wanna climb this mountain!" Well, he made it to the end-that is, guys older and bigger and stronger than he turned back before he did and it wasn't until everyone turned back that he did too. So he came home with a smile and a straight back and that is a very, very good thing in the life of a 15 year old boy.

We went to the "Apple Pie Day" event in Salem (capitol of Oregon, in case you haven't covered that yet.)

We climbed to the base of the golden pioneer.

There it is more off to the distance.

Every Oregon child climbs the golden pioneer. And visits Enchanted Forest and roller skates at Oaks Park, at least once... (Well, maybe not if you are from Burns or something, that is a pretty long way to go, but otherwise, no excuses!)

We also visited our representative, Bill Kennemer, who was very receptive and cordial. He talked about trying to get prayer meeting going and no one showing up and feeling alone down there in Salem. Well, that's probably so, here in liberal land. We shouldn't under estimate the power of encouraging our government leaders. They are people just like us, and it can't be very easy to withstand the tides they encounter. So I thought we should do more of this sort of thing as we can.

There we are on the capitol steps. I didn't get a picture of us all together-a friend took this one and I lifted it from his facebook page.. But, there ya go..

We also have another teenager! Three of them all together now, can ya believe it?

Elisa is the kind of kid that would make any parent smile. She loves babies, her church, her friends..

We've also been dealing with allergies and headaches this last year and she's endured discomfort like a trooper.

So, that's what I have time for today. Hope you are well and happy!