Snapshots from Easter

Way too busy over the Easter weekend to even look at my blog - let alone post anything on it! It was a great weekend with my family in Indiana. We had tons of fun: Easter eggs, racquetball, cornhole, rain and sunshine, s'mores, and way more fun than should be allowed on the Wii. A great way to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior!

Decorating the eggs - always fun!

Who can find the chirping Wii remote first?

More Wii fun chipping golfballs.

All-you-can-eat-Nugget night at Chick-fil-a (and waffle fries and drink). 10 of the boxes are Caleb's - he just broke his record.

No, lobster racing is not an Easter tradition. It was the finale of Jenny's high school graduation celebration - finally!

Another Weekend...Counting Down

Well, I failed to take pictures of the dollhouse to post today. If I think about it, I'll take some tonight and upload them. The shingles are finished and most of them are on the house, attached with masking tape while the glue dries. And the tower is built, but not attached. There's a wall that didn't level out right, so I've got to adjust so the tower will lay flat. I also got quite daring: I cut a wall in order to make the attic bedroom bigger - got to have lots of room for a huge family, you know. Goal this week? Get the wallpaper measured and cut. Then it can go in as soon as the electricity is rigged.

Otherwise, my weekend was busy and not so busy. Got the last Larkrise to Candleford season! Haley and I watched one disc. Have to get the second one done this week so I can take it with me when I go to Indiana on Friday. Took a nap on Sunday...and filled the hours on Saturday with one chore after another. I didn't sit down for six hours - unless you count kneeling over flowerbeds and weeds and the quick trip to Sonic at Happy Hour. Weeds, washing the car, sweeping the garage, dustmopping the house, doing dishes, washing clothes and sheets, cutting vines, picking up shingles and sticks from the high winds Friday night. Oh - and I planted some squash seeds. (Yes, Mom, I did. My weak attempt at gardening...) Exhausting - but it was good, hard labor.

Not much to look forward to this week (unless temperatures reaching nearly 100 tomorrow is something to look forward to). At least not as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday drag on. But on Friday...! I go to Indiana! My wonderful housemate will wake up with me before the sun rises and trek me to the airport in order to catch a 6 AM flight. After a brief stop in Memphis, I will land in Indianapolis not long after 10:30. Where my wonderful parents will pick me up. And where I will spend the next five days doing nothing but eating way more than I should, playing on the Wii, pushing dogs away, resting in a room full of books and enjoying not only my parents but my five youngest siblings. Oh, why can't it be Friday now?

The house with the tower attached and the shingles.

Decided on my outside colors after picking up several samples: aren't they lovely?

Wallpaper for the library, bathroom and master bedroom, ready to go as soon as the electricity is put in!

Fear not, therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

~ Luke 12:7b ~

When God Sends you Flowers

I have a friend who laughs at me. Or with me. All because of something I said when I was the foolish age of 17. I told her I really didn't care if some guy ever sent me flowers. After all, they just die. A book would be much better. I can have that until the day I go to Heaven - and then leave it to my kids. (Who, you're probably right, will sell them on e-bay. Or whatever they'll have in 50 years.)

My perspective on that subject has changed a bit. Not because I don't still think a book is nicer than flowers, but I've realized it's the thought that counts. And thoughts are wonderful, although I don't need flowers to know someone is thinking about me. Other things work just as well - and better.

So, yes, all of this has a point. Back in March, I was starting to plan a trip to New Hampshire. Last time I went in February to enjoy a real winter. This time I considered May in order to see my beloved lilacs. (Which do not grow in Texas, horrible place that it can be.) But a friend is getting married in June. Support the friend? Or see the lilacs? I honestly didn't know until my dear friend Allyson (who is sister of the bride) asked if I would come up in June for the wedding. She and the bride want me to do the absolute best job in the entire world: watch and entertain Allyson's soon-to-be-five-children so she can make the cake. Who could turn down a job like that? I didn't even think twice and bought my tickets a few weeks later. I'm going to New Hampshire in June.

So while I will enjoy as many hours as possible playing chase, and blowing bubbles, and telling stories to Caleb, Violet, Seth, Silas and ???; I will miss the lilacs. Perhaps that is why I put a picture of them on my work computer. But, then, last week a friend told me, "I smelled lilacs when I stepped outside my apartment. They reminded me of home."

"You did not," I replied. "Lilacs don't grow in Texas."

"I did. I know I did. I smelled them back home in Pittsburgh all the time."

My hopes rose. Could it be the state of Texas did possess one lone lilac bush? Well, my friend and I were out walking during this discussion. Several streets later, my friend stopped to smell something.

"What?" I asked.

"That," my friend answered and pointed up. "That is what I smelled at my apartment. Lilacs."

Correction. It was a tree, not a bush. And while the purple flowers did smell like lilacs, they don't look like them. I picked some and looked them up online the next day. Over 3 million hits and an hour later, I tracked them down: Chinaberry. Or, the Persian Lilac.

I feel like God has sent me flowers. Yet again, I will pass another spring and will not enjoy the beauty of lilacs. But I can enjoy the smell. Here at the office as I picked some more and put them in a cup. And back at home where I will take some and place them in a vase. And I will think of how much God loves me. For even in Texas, He sends me flowers.

For those handful of readers I have who are keeping up with my dollhouse, here are a few pictures. Perhaps this weekend, I can get the roof on.

From the backside - complete with staircase!

From the front side - the roof is begun...

The 3rd floor fireplace. Just don't put a fire in it. It's sealed off. (Lest little girls - or, more likely, their pesky brothers - decide to throw things down it.)

"I Love Thee, O Lord, my Strength"

May He grant you your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your plans! Psalm 20:4 (ESV)

This is the first verse I came across on Saturday evening that seemed to shout at me, and I sent it to a friend I thought would also benefit from it. I was thinking about it again yesterday, looking it up to remember the exact wording. I started looking at some cross references and came upon this one:

For Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness... Psalm 21:3a (KJV)

I sat and just stared at the verse for quite some time, knowing how much the words have meant in my life over the past months yet unable to put it all into words. I decided to look it up in Matthew Henry’s commentary – where he said exactly what I was thinking:

That God had surprised him with favours, and much outdone his expectations (v. 3): Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. All our blessings are blessings of goodness, and are owing, not at all to any merit of ours, but purely and only to God’s goodness. But the psalmist here reckons it in a special manner obliging that these blessings were given in a preventing way; this fixed his eye, enlarged his soul, and endeared his God, as one expresses it. When God’s blessings come sooner and prove richer than we imagine, when they are given before we prayed for them, before we were ready for them, nay, when we feared the contrary, then it may be truly said that he prevented us with them. Nothing indeed prevented Christ, but to mankind never was any favour more preventing than our redemption by Christ and all the blessed fruits of his mediation.

Amen!

Lately I have been praying every week for a verse that I could pray throughout my week. Some weeks, I get to Wednesday and wonder where the verse is. But this week, my cup has been overflowing. On Sunday evening after I got home from church, I stood out under the stars and prayed for something that seems completely impossible. I know God does the impossible. I beseeched Him on that promise. Yet there are so many moments in my life when my faith isn’t even half the size of a mustard seed. That night when I pulled out my Bible to read before bed, I started the book of Luke…where verse 37 called my name:

For with God, nothing shall be impossible.

Will the impossible happen? In nine days? I don’t know. God’s will will be done. And I’ll pray it is impossible.

Weekends are too Short

Seems like there's never enough time to fit everything I want to do on a weekend into it...at least, that has been the case as late. Oh, I get the major things done: laundry, some cooking, cleaning my bathroom...you know, the things a working single girl can't get done during the week. I also got some things printed, but not everything. (That's tonight's goal, before and after tennis, along with balancing checkbooks.) I didn't get to my dollhouse at all, but I have been plugging away at it all week. (No pictures, but I'll post some later. The staircase is in and most of the walls. It's about ready to be electrified...I hope to get some help on that one.) And my car needs to be washed.

So, what did I do all weekend? Well, I feel like I spent a lot of time on the phone. But that's a bit typical for my weekends. Not just because of weekend rates, but when else does a single, working girl make all her phone calls? And I had fun. Lots of fun. Which was much more pleasurable than chores anyhow, so I'm not complaining. I saw two movies: True Grit on Friday night and Jane Eyre on Saturday. (And, I must confess, True Grit was my favorite of the two. Not because I'm a huge western fan, but because this version of Jane Eyre just wasn't the best of the 27 made in my opinion, although it was very good.) I played a board game and spent an hour on the Wii with a friend swordfighting, shooting arrows, dogfighting, canoeing and throwing frisbees with our Wii dogs. I looked at books on Arlington Cemetery and Wyatt Earp. I took a walk, jogged and spent hours talking and enjoying the company of friends.

It was a wonderful weekend...WAY too short. And now it's back to work. Where I started my day with a "Series of Unfortunate Events". If I wasn't dropping something, I was knocking something down. And if I wasn't knocking it down, I was wrestling to put it back up. I started to think I should go back to bed and start the day over again before I ended up truly injuring myself. Thankfully, the afternoon has been smoother...if not long. For the day is so lovely, and it's such an awful thing to be stuck in an office. At least I got a walk at lunch. And maybe tonight I'll sit outside and balance my checkbooks. That will make it a bit more pleasant, right?

Courting to Dueling: Antiquated Etiquette Guides

Thus was the title of an e-mail I received this week. Usually I don’t look at the e-mails from that particular book seller just because they’re never advertising anything that catches my interest. But I must admit this one did. So, I opened it.

The first two books they advertised were by Mrs. Humphry in 1898. One was entitled Manners for Men (which includes how to behave at a dinner party, proper dueling etiquette and advice on how to court and marry a woman). The other was entitled A Word to Women (which guides women in how to dress, and what to read, and how to manage servants – something I certainly need to know).

Further links led to an even more fascinating selection of reading material I probably need to rush out and purchase as soon as possible lest I fail miserably in some way either during courtship or when facing a duel. I think the most helpful ones to me personally will be:

· A Pocket Guide to Croquet – I definitely need help with my swing…not that it would be of much use since I don’t have a croquet set

· Hold ‘Em Girls: The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Men and Football - the synopsis states this will educate me on the game of football so I won’t ruin some man’s enjoyment of the game by asking foolish questions…in case my dad’s lessons weren’t enough

· Advice to Young Men and (Incidentally) to Young Women – the synopsis states, “Advice including why it’s necessary to cure the vices of wives as soon as possible and why reading is detrimental to women…” I wonder what the cure for my vices are, for I am long past being a fallen woman if reading to detrimental to me

· How Men Propose – I understand this one is divided into sections such as the youthful proposal, the humble proposal, the failed proposal, etc…how have I lived 31 years without this one? Of course, I’ve never been proposed to either…

Obviously, my library is lacking. As is, apparently, my education. But, of course, reading is detrimental to a woman. Therefore, I shouldn’t be reading any of these books at all. But then how am I to learn these absolutely necessary lessons if I can’t read the books? Watch them on youtube? After that, I can probably write a book entitled: Courting to Dueling: Practical Advice to Young Women who aren’t Allowed to Read Books and (Incidentally) to Young Men – all to be Found on Youtube.

Disclaimer: Honestly, these titles are not April Fool’s jokes! For that, check out google…