Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Abortionist turns Pro-life

Here is an interesting article about an abortionist that turned pro-life after having nightmares. May Obama have nightmares as well. We pray that God will use whatever it takes to change Obama's heart.

Red Envelope Day

Red Envelope Day. Get a red envelope (or better yet, LOTS of them). You can buy them at Kinkos, or at party supply stores. On the front, address it to

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington , D.C. 20500

On the back, write the following message.
"This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion.
It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world."

We will mail the envelopes out March 31st, 2009.

Put it in the mail, and send it. Then forward this event to every one of your friends who you think would send one too. I wish we could send 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died [in the U.S.] before having a chance to live.

It may seem that those who believe abortion is wrong are in a minority. It may seem like we have no voice and it's shameful to even bring it up. Let us show our President and the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard.

Together we can change the heart of The President and save the lives of millions of children.I just bought some red envelopes and printed the info on them myself. Even if you mailed them out on April 1st it would be just fine.

I know of some other people personally that are participating. Let's send a message together.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Fun for Dolly

My boys and I read the following poem recently and they have asked me to read it again and again. I thought of my friend Dolly (because her blog is called The Dolly *Mama*). Today is her birthday!

The Llama Who Had No Pajama

The llama who had no pajama
Was troubled and terribly sad
When it became known that he had outgrown
Every pair of pajamas he had;
And he tearfully said to his mama
In a voice that was deep with despair:
O llamaly mama
I need a pajama
Or what in the world will I wear?
Or what in the world,
In the wumberly world,
In the wumberly world will I wear?

The llama who had no pajama
Looked up at the evening sky.
It will soon, he said, be time for bed
And all will be sleeping but I.
And all will be sleeping but I, but I,
And all will be sleeping but I.
For how can a llama go bare to bed,
The little pajamaless llama said,
When the rest of the world,
Of the wumberly world,
Are all wearing pretty pajamas?

The poor little llama's sad mama
Got out her needle and thread.
I'll try to enlarge your pajama,
The llama's sad mama said.
And she stitched and she sewed those pajamas
Till she ran out of plum-colored thread,
But they still were too small for the llama.
O what will we do? Mama said.
For you must have a pair of pajamas
As you cannot go naked to bed;
But where in the world,
In the wumberly world,
Will we find you a pair of pajamas?

They looked in each nook and each cranny;
They looked on each hillock and mound;
But though they saw bathrobes and bonnets,
Pajamas were not to be found.
The clock struck a quarter to seven.
The llama lay down on the ground.
I know I won't sleep, he sniffed sadly,
And his nose made a staying-up sound.

But he did sleep. He dozed off at seven,
And he slept for the rest of the night;
And when he woke up in the morning
To his mama he said with delight:
What a wonderful sleep I've been sleeping all night!
My head feels so clear and my eyes fell so bright.
When we looked for pajamas, how foolish we were.
Why, I sleep so much better in nothing but fun!
It fits me so nicely; it's light as the air;
It's the practical thing for a llama to wear.
And since goats don't wear coats
And doves don't wear gloves
And cocks don't wear socks
And bats don't wear hats,
Well, why in the world,
In the wumberly works,
Should llamas be wearing pajamas?

~~~~~~~~

Wasn't that fun? Now, I will end with their new favorite poem (as of yesterday):

Hippopotamus

How far from human beauty
Is the hairless hippopotamus
With such a square enormous head
And such a heavy botamus.

*Oh they LOVE this one!

These poems are from the book The Llama Who Had No Pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Tips and Goodies

Here is a great article with 20 tips for setting up a loose routine with small kids.

And, just for fun, I can't wait to make these and these.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Cooking with Kids

This is a wonderful post about how to enjoy your kids helping in the kitchen. She has 6 great tips to get you started.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Flannery, Randy, and Dietrich

Flannery O'Connor:

Conviction without experience makes for harshness.

Randy Alcorn:

I’ve heard people say, “I want more of a heart for missions.” I always respond, “Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions—and in your church and the poor—and your heart will follow”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the Psalms as the prayers of Christ:


Jesus Christ has brought every need, every joy, every gratitude, every hope of men before God. In his mouth the word of man becomes the Word of God, and if we pray his prayer with him, the Word of God becomes once again the word of man. All prayers of the Bible are such prayers which we pray together with Jesus Christ, in which he accompanies us, and through which he brings us into the presence of God. Otherwise there are no true prayers, for only in and with Jesus Christ can we truly pray.

Marriage x 2

Here is a wonderful article on The Transforming Miracle of Marriage.

And, I am reading another terrific book on marriage. It is called The Mystery of Marriage.

Mike Mason has a gift for explaining the beauty and complexity of marriage. This is not a how to book. It is a book that will clean the lense that you are looking through when you look at your marriage.

Clean Less, Play More

My friend Denise (that link was to her husband's blog, but she posts on it sometimes :0) sent a link to me recently from one of her favorite blogs. It has been really helpful for me in daily life. Here is the basic idea...

Do these 7 things every single day and your house will always be fairly presentable (maybe even really tidy and clean).

Number 1: Make Beds Right Away

Number 2: Do One Complete Load of Laundry

Number 3: Empty All Garbage Cans

Number 4: Keep Your Kitchen Sink Empty

Number 5: Clean Up After Yourself and Help Children Do the Same

Number 6: Bathroom Wipe-Down

Number 7: Before Bed 10-Minute Clean Up

I already did some of these things daily. But, making a plan to do each one every single day has helped me stay on top of things a little bit better than I was before. I have tried different "plans" along the way to try keeping up with my home. This is the one that I am most happy with at present. The author, Stephanie, wrote two articles fleshing out her ideas. You can find them here.

I will leave you with this from her article:

Our house isn’t spotless. It isn’t pristine. But it is clean.

There are a few things to keep in mind when Cleaning Less and Playing More:

* if it isn’t dirty, don’t clean it
* if you do a little bit every day, it won’t get overwhelming
* if you get it out, put it away
* you are in charge of your own stuff
* help each other
* children learn by example
* don’t expect your home to look like a magazine spread. This is real life
* if you have too much stuff, it’s time to PROM (purge,remove,organize,maintain)
* don’t bring stuff home unless you know where it’s going to go
* changing habits takes time

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Quote from Daddy today...

I just heard Jeremy say this from upstairs...

"Who put the stapler in Remy's crib?"

Nice.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Lorica

My friend Wendy quoted part of this today and I had to put the whole thing here. This is one of my favorite hymns. We used to sing it every time a baby was baptized at our church in St. Louis. What a beautiful way to sing about baptism binding us and our children to the Trinity!


St Patrick's Lorica (this translation by Cesil Francis Alexander)


I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun's life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and whiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

A Good Book



I am almost done reading For the Children's Sake and I highly recommend it! It is full of wonderful new ways to look at education. The ideas presented apply to any type of education...homeschool, public school, private school, or Christian school.

My favorite part was more about parenting than education. Chapter 3 is entitled "Authority and Freedom". It was exactly what I needed to hear right now. There are used copies on Amazon for 71 cents (plus 3.99 shipping) so head on over there and get this book! But, before you do, I will leave you with this quote:

"Within the family, the child is not a 'job,' he is a friend."

Friday, March 13, 2009

We can't do it all...

Doug Wilson also said this on his blog.


Third, recognize that in this fallen world we are striving to mature in a number of different areas at the same time. This means a series of trade-offs. For a harried mother striving to be "reformational" in her approach to her domestic challenges, she might find herself (multiple times a day) having to choose between this and that, both options insisting that they represent a higher and better way. She can cook the kids a real meal, hot and nutrious, ready at six, or she can get the laundry done and have their sheets changed, clean and fresh, ready by bedtime. But not both. They can have the reformational meal, and deal with the sheets for one more night, or they can enjoy clean sheets after a dinner of pancakes. In this life, perfectionism is paralyzing. Strive for excellence while taking it easy.

Our labor mirrors us

Doug Wilson wrote this on his blog:

As I write, Nancy is already busy with the Thanksgiving meal. She is a fantastic cook, and everything she serves up is a striking but inadequate metaphor for her. When I look at the table after she is done with her labors, I see her wisdom in the arrangements, her sense of beauty in how the table is decorated, her kindness in the places set for the little ones, her covenant commitments in the size of the table, her work ethic in how much she has accomplished, her intelligence in the logistics involved, and her sweetness in the pies. And of course the food is also hot.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Monday, March 02, 2009

The Devil at Work

The following is an excerpt from this wonderful sermon by Rob Rayburn on Revelation 12: 1-17. I loved the whole thing, but if you are short on time the portion below will be helpful. I appreciated this part because it made me think ahead as I parent these little boys. I need to see what dangers are ahead for them so that I can prepare them. It also made me appreciate the wonderful godly men that are being a light in our world. I am so thankful for my husband and other men that I know that help to show the world what "manliness" REALLY is.

~~~~~~~~~~

We have mainstreamed pornography and in so doing have cauterized and polluted the souls of our society’s young men and left our young women to make do with what is left. Apparently, according to almost all studies and surveys, American women are not much impressed with what has become of the American male. But even they are not crying out for a counter-revolution. There is nowadays a conversation underway in some segments of the media as to what has gone wrong with the American man, why he has become such an unreliable, unadmirable, selfish twit, alternately silly and disgusting, in bondage to his lusts, preoccupied with his diversions, and of little use to other human beings. He seems both more passionate and more skillful at video games and fantasy sports teams than taking responsibility for a wife or for children. It has been noticed that no one is speaking of manhood any longer; no one even knows what it would mean in our society. Step aside ladies; the men must get to the lifeboats! But aware of a great loss, no one has wisdom to offer; no one a remedy. The once grand conception of liberty, thus debased, has left our men no longer noble, but small. Petty, sitting alone in front of a computer screen with little to offer others. Those who mourn the loss of what used to be are voices crying in the wilderness.

Here we are: an enlightened culture that is systematically unraveling the character of our people. Pornography, gambling, violence are still seen to be positively liberating to some and, however depressing, irresistible to others. And it continues. With marriage teetering on the brink of collapse in a society that has been repeatedly warned that it needs nothing so desperately as to restore the health of the institution of marriage, it seems to many of our cultural elite that what is really needed is to continue the dismantling of the institution by opening it to homosexuals and by adjusting the social policy of the state still further to erase the distinction between the married and the unmarried.

And so it continues. In a society now shaped by the sexual revolution, with unprecedented numbers of people with sexually transmitted diseases and high abortion rates, it is still impossible to convince many of the architects of this revolution that anything is wrong. We now have a political class that in largest part cannot be made to see that there is any real problem with abortion or promiscuity. A single generation has erased the moral consensus of 2000 years. In a society beset with a generation of young people who suffer terribly from a lack of impulse-control, self-discipline, and the willing acceptance of responsibility, so-called experts are pressing us to outlaw spanking. The very things that our culture is in greatest need of, such as the disciplined parenting of children, are the very things intelligent people of our culture are determined to jettison. This is their moral passion: to destroy our character! The very things that we have done that have brought the greatest misery upon our society are the very changes they are most loathe to undo. Hardly a second thought ever passes through the minds of those shaping this culture into the engine of human sadness and disappointment and unfulfillment that it has become and is still becoming, as Europe before it.

Is this not “devilish” in the truest, deepest most literal sense of the term? Are we not correct to think that there is a power at work here greater than that of mere social currents or human ideology? The blindness to the facts, the indifference to human woe and especially the woe borne by our nation’s children, the inflexible loyalty to ludicrous ideas, the unwillingness even to contemplate the possibility that fundamental errors have been made, is all of this not evidence that our society is in the grip of something more powerful than itself and that it is in thrall to a will outside of itself?

When Paul says that, as Christians, we do not wrestle with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, forces of evil in the heavenly realms, is he not explaining the world we see every day. And when he says that he is not ignorant of Satan’s designs and that it is imperative for Christians to stand against his wiles, what is he saying but that the world we live in each day is a world made more spiritually dangerous and difficult by the fact that it is inhabited by powers greater than those of mere human beings and that those powers are being employed to destroy, to corrupt, to unman, to blind, and to lead astray.