Halloween 2010!

All dressed up!

Trick or Treating with friends!

You have to work for the candy in this hilly neighborhood!

Enjoying a little something before bed!

Pumpkin Carving 2010!

Have fun tonight!

Let Us Not Become Weary!

⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Galatians 6:7-10

I'm meditating on these verses today. I have been tempted to give up, to give in to sin, to indulge myself instead of pressing on, to justify my nastiness rather than choose to do good.

And the Spirit brings these verses to mind.

How about you today?

May God strengthen us to persevere in doing good for His sake. May we remember Jesus who suffered unto death for our sakes. May the Spirit remind us of God's loving-kindness and His awesome holiness. And may we, in due time, see the harvest He promises as we persevere in faith.

Moved by a Children's Book

This morning I read Beethoven Lives Upstairs to Elizabeth. It's historical fiction about the time during which Beethoven wrote his 9th Symphony, told through letters between a young boy, named Christoph, and his uncle. Christoph's young widowed mother rents the second floor of their home to Beethoven himself.

Through his letters, the uncle encourages Christoph to be empathetic toward the very noisy and moody deaf man of a difficult history, who often wakes his family with his excessive pounding. The end is so touching I had to swallow back tears to not cry like a baby over the last two pages!

We listened to the finale (all I had available on cd) after finishing the story. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be in that hall in Vienna in 1824, to listen to such beautiful music, written by a man who did not even know that the audience was on their feet applauding his work, because he could not hear them.

Remarkable

And it sure choked me up today.

A Reflection of Myself

Remember that little boy in the previous post with Gramma's foundation all over his face, who's written in pen on my in-law's leather ottoman and on their wall with dry-erase marker in the last couple of weeks, and who will squirt out any tubes of toothpaste or lotion he can get his hands on from the bathroom?

Yep, that's the one. My son.

Well, this morning while Elizabeth was reading to me I sneezed several times.

From across the room comes, "Bess you, mommy." And that little man hurried into the kitchen, as fast as his squishy little toddler legs would take him, and got me tissues. Now, mind you, it was a wad of tissues he'd found earlier on an arm chair, blown his nose in, and already put in the trash. But I blew my nose with those tissues, got the tickle out of my nose, and pondered that precious moment in my heart.

Aren't we all capable of so much mischief (the Bible calls it sin) but then God gives us little glimpses of how He's teaching and maturing us?

As parents, aren't these moments with our children gifts from the same God, who reassures us that it's worth it to "keep on keepin' on" in the training and instruction?

My prayer is that I would be even a tiny fraction as compassionate and merciful with my children as my Heavenly Father has been with me. It's a learning curve, folks, and I'm still low on the slope; but I can press on with hope because God - Father, Son, and Spirit - is at work and finishes what He starts ... in my life and in those of my kids!

Miscellaneous

Did I mention that it's fall?!

Did I mention that this guy's been getting into trouble?

Did I mention we're glad to have this man in our lives?

Hope your day is bright, by God's grace! Here's a little poem we've been enjoying at our house, in case the weather is not so bright in your neck of the woods.

Weather

Whether the weather be fine

or whether the weather be not.

Whether the weather be cold

or whether the weather be hot.

We'll whether the weather,

whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not!

Hide and Seek

Can anyone find the beaver in this picture?

I can't see him either, but I know he was there when I took the photograph!

The Pittsburgh Zoo has this cute little beaver family that we saw first when they were itty-bitty babies. Now they're all as big as mama and papa. I told the kids this was probably the dad up on the stairs, trying to get some peace and quiet!

We stuck to the Kid's Kingdom on this visit. We pet some goats and enjoyed watching a very friendly sea lion.

My favorite part, though, was that big, fat beaver grooming himself (herself?) alone at the top of those stairs. Aren't we parents always trying to find a little corner in which to be alone? :)