What I'm Reading

Adopted for Life: by Russell D. Moore. This was my pick for book club this month. It has blessed my life and given me tremendous knowledge. It has brought me closer to my Lord in understanding my standing as an heir of Christ.

Here is a brief summary from cbd.com: The gospel of Jesus Christ — the good news that through Jesus we have been adopted as sons and daughters into God’s family — means that Christians ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of orphans in North America and around the world.

Russell D. Moore doe s not shy away from this call in Adopted for Life, a popular-level, practical manifesto for Christians to adopt children and to help equip other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who want children — or who want more children. It is about an entire culture within the church, a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.

I wish that everyone would read this book. Maybe I am too close to the topic of adoption, but everyone is touched by adoption in some way- adopting, adopted, friends, family, supporters or adopted by our Heavenly Father.

On a side note, the author is actually going to be in town this Sunday at my brother's church. I am making plans to go to church with them. What a providential blessing!

What I'm reading

Diary of a Rabbit: I found this sweet book at the library the other day. It was published in 1982, written by Lilo Hess. It begins with the birth of some bunnies, including Daisy, the main character. It has some very sweet pictures of a growing rabbit and the story concludes when Daisy becomes a mother. Factual yet fun. I love it.

Prodigal God: by Timothy Keller. I read this for book club last month. It focuses on the story we think of as the Prodigal Son, but Keller explores the depth of the parable. The prodigal was lost, the elder brother was lost, I was lost in sin. But our Heavenly Father seeks us out and draws us to Himself. I never really understood this parable before- I am an older sister and always thought the elder brother was justified in his anger. I am grateful for Rev. Keller for writing this book and explaining the radical nature of this parable.

Flower results

Mom's wreath- absolutely gorgeous!
Arrangements for the cemetery

My wreath- it is made up off all the left over flowers

Here are the flower arranging results! Molly did help a little, but I was on my own for all the hard parts. :)

H is for hat

Today we were on the letter H. We read a book about hats, A Hole in my Pocket, and Robin Hood. We played with The Cat in the Hat stuffed animal. And we made hats. Enjoy the results!

Molly the helper

Checking everything out- looks good to me!

Molly eating the berries

My mom and I need some autumn wreaths for our front doors. We picked out some great flowers and I started tearing them apart and putting them into arrangements tonight.

Well, along comes Molly, all ready to help! First she had to smell everything. Then she decided to nibble on a few things. The berries were her favorite. Finally, Molly decided to move everything around. She's a mover that girl! Enjoy the pictures of my flower decorating assistant. :)

Marty McFly

Well, last week was homecoming at my husband's school. There were theme days and he even dressed up for two of them! He was Dwight from The Office while his boss was Michael Scoot on Twin/Duo day. My favorite was the Milk and Oreo duo and Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.

But my favorite was Decade Day- you could dress up as anyone from any decade 1980s or earlier. So, somehow we were talking about Back to the Future and Aaron mentioned that he saw a puffy vest advertised somewhere. So, last Thursday I got up early and helped him tight roll his jeans, hook on his suspenders and took some pictures. This was the happiest I have ever been at 7 in the morning! He was classic McFly with the high tops, jeans, suspenders, denim jacket and puffy vest- I can't believe we actually pulled it off. Homecoming fun at its best.

what? am I doing something wrong?

I haven't posted anything about Molly in a while so I thought I would share a funny incident from this week. As I walked into the dining room one morning, I found Molly sitting on a chair. Just sitting there like this was the most normal thing in the world. What was she thinking? Maybe she thought breakfast was being served at the table or something. . . Funny bunny!

The above picture is obviously not of Molly in the chair- I didn't grab the camera for that. But it does show one of her "What? What am I doing?" poses.

Monday feature: What I'm Reading

It has been way too long since I posted anything about books! While I have read lots of books this summer, I wanted to share a book I just rediscovered in my quest to find the rest of my children's books to read to the little boy that I am teaching/babysitting.

Introducing Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Jane Dyer. I love LOVE this book. It makes me smile just thinking about it. The illustrations are simply beautiful. And as an added bonus- there are bunnies! Well, there are lots of children and animals but you know that my favorites are the bunnies.

Here is a summary from a review at School Library Journal:

Using the activity of making and eating cookies, the author defines some important concepts for young children, such as respect, trustworthiness, patience, politeness, loyalty, etc. The book begins: COOPERATE means, How about you add the chips while I stir? and continues with one definition per page. For example, FAIR means, You get a bite, I get a bite….; REGRET means, I really wish I didn't eat so many cookies; and CONTENT means sitting on the steps just you, me, and a couple of cookies. Lovely pastel watercolor illustrations show appealing children and anthropomorphic animals interacting with one another and the treats.

I must tell you that my favorite illustrations are three bunnies (shocking, I know): pessimistic (the grumpy bunny face is right on!), optimistic, and regret. My other favorite is honest- the sweet little lamb is so adorable!

Here is a link if you want to see some inside pages of the book: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060580810

I am also excited to tell you that there are two more books by the author that I can't wait to own: Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons and the soon to be published Sugar Cookies: Sweet Little Lessons on Love. Happy reading!

Remember

September 11, 2001. A wise friend of mine said that this was the question of our generation. So many Americans just like me were too far removed from "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?" There was not one huge major event that everyone could relate to- sure, I remember when the Challenger exploded and when we bombed Libya, even when we started the first Iraq war. But this was different, tragic. Everyone has a reply to "Where were you on 9/11?"

Here is my story. I was just pulling into the parking lot at work. I heard a news report that a plane just flew into a building in New York. Then I got out of my car and went into the library. I didn't think too much about it, though I did think it was sad. You see, just a week or two before a small private plane crashed into something- it was a student pilot and very much an accident.

Since I worked in a library, I did not have any more access to the news. We didn't have a tv or radio on- it was a library. Slowly, over the course of the morning, students trickled in and told us some of the scattered and crazy information. Finally, we learned enough to know that we needed to turn on a radio! Do you remember all the chaos that was being reported? Can you remember the confusion you felt?

For those of you who don't know, I will tell you that my Mom is a flight attendant. She has been flying for 40 years. And she was flying that day. Of course, I had no way to contact her. So I called my Dad. He could not contact her and had not heard from her. Shortly after all the attacks, all airplanes were grounded to the nearest airport all over the United States. So, I hoped and prayed that my Mom was somewhere safe and stranded. But I can still remember the fear and panic I felt in the unknown.

Well, as you know, 9/11 was a Tuesday. The college I worked at held chapel every Tuesday at 11 a.m. Everyone on campus gathered in the auditorium to receive the most up to date information and to share concerns. Many students told of family or friends that they were worried about who lived in New York and D.C. or people they knew were flying that day. We all cried and prayed. There was a constant prayer vigil that continued the whole week.

There was not much work going on that day. But we were together listening to the news. We comforted each other and many of the students. By the way, my Dad did get in touch with my Mom late in the afternoon. She was safe but grounded for a while.

Then it was time to go home. There was something crazy going on at a gas station I passed- long, long lines and people shouting. Apparently there was a run on gasoline in case of more attacks. Do you remember those hours and days when we had no idea what could be next? The fear and uncertainty that any minute you might hear of more terrorism?

I got home and finally had an opportunity to see the images of the terrorist attacks. Remember, I worked in a library and without a tv, just radio. Watching those news reports was horrible. I cried so much I got a headache and then prayed and clung to my husband. And that is pretty much my story. I am sure we ate dinner and went to bed. We got up the next morning and things were still terrible, but life had to go on. Time does not stop and everything changes.

We live in a changed world. And I am thankful, but not always happy about, the increased security at airports. My Mom is still flying. In fact, she is flying home tomorrow on September 11, 2009. Hopefully I will pick her up from the airport and take her to lunch then do a little shopping. And I think back and wonder if lots of people were planning to do just that eight years ago . . . Let us hope and pray and remember.

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging." Psalm 46:1-3

Birthday bash

Malorie and Mom with the cupcakes (there was a bit of batter testing going on!)
Me and Mal frost the cupcakes

the birthday boys

Here are a few pictures from the birthday celebration we held in our backyard last weekend. The birthday boys were my dad and brother. My niece Malorie, my mom and I were in the kitchen all day making fun things to eat- including cupcakes and banana pudding!