Anole......not exactly a Seminole....

We finally did it! We caught a brown sluggish lizard today. He hunkerd down under some rocks next to our Rosemary bush , I told Audrey to guard him while I ran for a jar. Couldn't find anything really suitable in such a rush so my McDonald's iced coffee cup had to work. Judah, Audrey and I all cornered the little thing and I was finally able to usher him or her into the cup. Audrey acted like we won the lottery. Me personally I think the lottery would have been a bit nicer because all I have seen today is the face of that LIZARD! She walks around holding him and talking about him and I was shocked to see him run across my keyboard awhile ago worried he would get lost in the house and stink everything up. But we managed to catch him. He has provided a good homeschool day. We studied the Anole's eating habits, habitat and other things like markings etc. He was brown when we caught him, now he is a nice lime green. Oh the times we have at this house!

This is the lifetime.....

I have gotten into the habit when time allows to sit with each of my older children in their beds with my massage lotion and before they drift off to sleep I massage their sweet legs and feet. They are delighted by my attention. It is amazing when I am loving them in this way how open they become in their thoughts and speech. They are so thankful. Tonight after I started working on Judah's legs he leaned his head back on the pillow and went," ahhhhhh....this is the lifetime." I have to agree. This is the lifetime.....how sweet we have it....I do not take a moment for granted.

May the best man win.....

I am praying not for a particular party to win this election but for the man God wants in office to win. There are things about both canidates that make me cringe and things about both that make me want to cheer. Why can't there be a between party. I'd like to see someone that was not raised in wealth to go to office one day, someone that can truly relate to poverty. Someone humble and confident all at once. Someone that did not think they are all that and a bag of chips. Someone that cared more about people than the power. Someone that did not look as if the vaseline were still left on their lips and teeth after the GQ shoot and someone that wasn't so old they had one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel. Someone that was so proud of where they stood they didn't try to cover up their beliefs by going around John's barn verbally to get your focus off subject so you never really knew how they felt. I wish my Grand Daddy were still here.....he'd give both of them a run for their money!

Insane.....

I am about to tell you what is insane. Taking two kids and a baby to a grocery store! Whatever visions you can conjure up in the way of tragedy, crisis and catastrophe I have probably seen it!

The Fragrance of Christ.......

2 Corinthians 2:15

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."

My senses have been awakened anew these past months. It seems everything has come alive and in focus to me....My attention has been drawn to the gift of smell. What it means to my life and how it matters to God. It seems some scents just transport me to nearly the height of heaven and some repel my very sense of direction and thinking. I was just thinking of accounts from the bible about different passages that mentioned herbs and perfumes and I was overwhelmed to find so many verses as I flipped the pages. I was in tears thinking of Mary crying at Jesus' feet wiping them with her hair and anointing them with Nard a very costly perfume. I can't imagine the reality of being at His feet and pouring my life out before Him in a physical sense. What healing must have taken place that afternoon.

I have a instructor that loves essential oils. She has kindly taken the time to instruct several of her students privately to mix and learn the skills of aroma therapy. As we sat around the table the other night I was amazed at the affect each aroma had on my emotions. Some had distant memories attached , some were light, some strong, floral, woody. I could not help but be attracted to things like citrus that just smelled so clean or to the smell of Jasmine so floral and beautifully romantic.

I have been thinking of Father and how fragrance means so much to Him. He created all these different smells for us to enjoy. I have been thinking about how my life might really smell in a spiritual sense to those who believe and to those that don't believe. Would I be a fresh lemon or grapefruit pure and clean, the lovely jasmine, the expensive perfume like Nard woody and strong.......

Oh, I do pray that the fragrance I carry will be his and his alone. That I will be trusted with the precious smell of life.

Regret....

Audrey slides around the corner this morning, asks me,"why did God make people talk?" I said," I don't know but I bet He regrets it sometimes!"
heh heh!

So many firsts......

Benjamin took his first independent steps the other day. I stared wide eyed as our last baby walked away from his baby hood. Children gleefully embrace all the new changes; the wonder of the world around them, while parents stand by and cheer them on with tears . I remember my Grandmothers face as I was leaving for college. Her standing at the door of my 70 chevy impala . I had lived with her and Grandpa through high school. I did not quite grasp the mix of sorrow and joy I saw on her face . Her crying caught me off guard. I can still see her there her hands in the position of supplication sending me off to a new life always carried by her sweet prayers of protection and blessing. Now I understand her more than ever. For every tooth lost, every step made, every door walked out of, my children are inching away from home and all I can do is stand for them, and with them and send them forth with sweet prayers of protection and blessing; believing that like me God will keep them and bring them to maturity in Him. I pray with all my heart they might know fullness of joy.

Butterflies......

Everywhere I turn I am followed by silent wings that flutter close to my face...waving brilliant colors I can barely describe, reflecting light and catching the swells of weightless waves from a sea of mist and cloud. There can be no mistake....I am being transformed....I stood silent today in a plain parking lot of a common grocery store, loading my things into the back of our van....the butterfly directly in front of me, rust and gold waving her wings to encourage my heart. Yes there is no mistake the Lord's words to me. I never would have believed these signs as a younger woman. But here I am forty and I have become a child.....Since that class so many weeks ago about the sphenoid bone, the butterfly behind my eyes the message comes clearer and clearer....like the lenses in an eye doctors office when you go for new glasses with each click I see new perspective, new meaning. My birthday came to me in an unusual way....some dear friends planned a precious outing for me, and at that supper one of my friends presented me with this necklace of beauty. A bright blue butterfly covered in sea green jewels. Then cards came one after another and the butterflies fluttered in with nearly each one. No one had known what Father was whispering to me....I could have cried a river of tears.... I have been praying for encouragement in my life. Somehow I had forgotten my purpose. Another sister that has walked with me closer than anyone, took me to a downtown restaurant called the Red Room. Even now I dream of that night. The glowing walls and the slow conversation unhurried, the unique food. Then as she was driving me home, I looked out my window to a wall painted on a building downtown and there was beautiful butterflies floating suspended in their flight....Father whispering, reminding me....transformation....I went home and fell into a deep sleep....I dreamed I went into this dark tiny closet room....darkness so thick you could not see your hand in front of your face...my heart pounded....I started shaking the door screaming for help.....crying for help....helpless....an unseen hand felt internally came down and crushed the door knob....I was undone....lost.....I used all my energy trying to escape that prison, that torment....exhausted I came to the end of my strength. I began to cry out to Jesus....Please help me Jesus and as soon as His name was off my lips that impenetrable door was burst open, this profound light chased the darkness away and David was waiting for me and laughing....I awoke. All around me I am hearing a voice. The voice of my Daddy, my heavenly Father who will not allow me to stay the same because He loves me so very much. A Father who truly loves His children will not allow them to live in mediocrity. So everywhere I look I see them, these literal reminders of what I am to become. I am in transition in that cocoon now where it is dark...... and if I am honest I am afraid; and yet there is expectation and joy of what is to come. I have not lived so long as to dismiss these events as foolish or long enough to see the end events unfold but I am so thankful for this journey. So thankful I am being reminded on a very regular basis that I have not been forgotten. My wings are being formed in this dark place, my colors brushed on by the master artist Himself. I am wrapped up tight and growing waiting to come forth from that cocoon , spread my wings and take my flight.....How I love you Lord. Thank you for remembering me, honoring me and touching my heart the way you do.....Tanya