Tuesday, September 30, 2014

1000 gifts: favorite verses and the Magician's Nephew

I'm finally catching up with my 1000 gifts list. These gifts are from September.

888. Mutton busting
Dreamer, Serious and Starlet got to try riding a sheep (mutton busting) for the first time at a Labor Day ranch rodeo - discovered it's a lot harder staying on a sheep than on a horse!
889. Baby lizard
Also at the ranch rodeo the girls found a baby horned lizard, barely an inch long

890. B. reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
In one day, no less! I've only known B. to read one other book (one of C.J. Box's Wyoming mysteries) since we've been married, and I've never known him to read anything so fast. We both absolutely loved this book, it is so funny and a little sad, too... about a 14 year old Native boy who leaves the Spokane reservation to go to high school in a neighboring white community where he can get more opportunities - but at the cost of being rejected by his friends on the Rez

891. A bright sunny morning after the rain. Glistening streets and sidewalks

892. Keeping track of triumphs
This is something I learned at an OA meeting: looking for little (or big) triumphs during the day: resisting temptation

893. Sharing my favorite verses for home school
 We've been studying each book of the Bible, the major themes and events, and also my own favorite verse from each book (based on my highlights over the years). Here's my list so far

Genesis 50:19,20 Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Exodus 14:14  The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Leviticus 9:23,24  The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering...when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

Deuteronomy 6:4-7: Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

Joshua 1:8,9  Do not let this Book depart from your mouth; meditate upon it day and night so that you may be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord Your God will be with you where ever you go.

Ruth 2:12  May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. (love the imagery of the Lord having wings!)
894. The stars singing in the Magician's Nephew
One day during home school I shared a verse that had recently stirred my heart during my daily reading (Deut. 32:10-13:  how the Lord carried Israel like an eagle that stirs up its nest [stirs up our lives] and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them, and carries them on its pinions" - and told them my hope was that someday God would show them special verses that would become their favorites, too. Dreamer asked me to share the verses God gave me when I got saved, so I read Job 38:1-8 to them.
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
And Blaze said, "Oh that's like the part in the Magician's Nephew when Aslan sang the stars into existence and the stars joined in his song!"  When we had read this part a few weeks earlier, I had mentioned how this part of the story meant so much to me, but it was especially wonderful to have Blaze remember it, too!
 Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out – single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it , as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing

895. Trail ride in the fall colors of Happy Jack, just B. and I

896. B. fixing my car's brakes and saving us so much money

897. Pop up camper
B. bought me a used pop up camper last year, and we finally got to use it this September when we visited his sister Melissa's home in Kansas. We all loved it!!! It fit our  family just perfectly and was surprisingly roomy and comfy to sleep in, but it still has that "tent" feeling to it that I love, closer to nature than a regular hard sided camper (those feel too enclosed for me).

898. the Mommy tax
On the long drive back from Kansas, whenever we would stop for snacks, I'd ask the girls to share just a little of their treats with me - we call it the "mommy tax"

899. Blaze's first "three phase event"
We missed the Laramie three-phase event earlier in September because we were in Kansas, but we able to make it to the one in Cheyenne at the end of September for Blaze to compete in. Eventing involves three phases: dressage, cross-country jumping and show jumping. Blaze loves the cross-country phase, which is where the jumps are spread out over a large (several mile long) course and include obstacles like water jumps, ditches, jumping off banks, and jumping uphill and downhill.
Blaze and Spring practicing at the warm-up jump at the Cheyenne event

900. the darklight
One of my favorite part of autumn are glimpses of "the darklight" you get in a forest when the sunlight shines down through changing autumn leaves and evergreen trees. I got a glimpse of this magical light on one of our trail rides and then again when I took the girls up to Happy Jack with their nature notebooks. I snuck off on my own, while the girls were on their assignment to sketch, to enjoy the peace and quiet and lose myself in the beauty. I first remember doing this when I was in 6th grade and my class spent an over night at a lodge in the woods. On a nature walk I purposefully fell behind everyone else so I could on a little footbridge over a stream and just soak up the beautiful autumn. Later in high school on another school trip to Allegheny State Park, I went off on my own again in the forest to have some time alone in my autumn revelry, lying on the ground and looking up through the trees, watching the play of golden and darklight.

901. finally understanding a confusing Bible verse
from Sarah Young's Jesus Lives: I have new insight into the parable of the three servants the Master gave talents to, a parable I've always struggled with understanding. "I was afraid, so I hid your talent in the ground." The harder the circumstances, the more treasure there is to be found if we don't shrink back but go out and invest what God has given us. It is He that multiplies it.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

September struggles

What I'm thankful for - all the leaves turning, the beautiful fall colors. This is my favorite time of year. A couple weekends ago the whole family went up to Vedauwoo to ride and we saw a moose and had fun discovering a whole chain of beaver ponds (that also somewhat confounded us, as we had to figure out a way to get across them to get back to the road!)  Here's a picture of my four girls with the wild jumble of rocks called Devil's Playground behind them.
This weekend my husband and I went for a trail ride, just the two of us, on my favorite fall trail (Happy Jack). The trees were peak color, and I was in complete bliss. I'm already trying to work out my schedule this week to get back up again here before the leaves are gone. I want to take the girls up here again and have them start a nature notebook.

What I'm struggling with - my teenage daughter (just turned 13). Some days we have a wonderful time going through the different books and materials for homeschool; other days it's a constant battle with either her sullen attitude or inability to focus. B. and I have talked it over, the two of us, and with her, and we've set guidelines for her to meet, and if she doesn't, she loses her privileges and computer/tablet time. It has really helped a lot. But I've had to learn to let keep my mouth shut and let the consequences teach her when she argues with me, instead of opening my mouth and arguing back.


What God is teaching me - I know He is teaching me to have faith and trust in Him through financial difficulties and these difficulties with my teenage daughter.  I NEED TO PRAY more! Need extra patience and grace so when she's full of attitude, I don't get puffed with attitude in response, too.

Where I am in the Word - our bible study group is studying Galatians this fall. I've been reading Galations 1 & 2 in several different translations, and find it especially interesting to read in the Message (MSG), a translation that I didn't used to like, but now like to read in parallel with NASB or NIV. Here's Gal 2:15,16 in MSG:

 We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.
Pocketful Of Pinecones: Nature Study With The Gentle Art Of Learning:  A Story For Mother CultureWhat I'm reading - Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola.  My neighbor lent me this book (and gave me lots of other books from her homeschool collection) and I'm loving it so much. This book gave me the idea to have the girls try a nature notebook. To hopefully be start of a love of nature and appreciation for God's creation.


What I'm watching - we recently watched God's Not Dead, and a couple of the scenes from that movie keep replaying in my head.  Here's a quote from it that I looked up: "Sometimes the devil allows people to live a life free of trouble because he doesn't want people turning to God. Their sin is like a jail cell, except it is all nice and comfy and there doesn't seem to be any reason to leave. The door's wide open. Till one day time runs out and the door slams shut and suddenly it's too late to get out."

What I'm anticipating - a trip to Buffalo, NY: my hometown, in October. Since I don't have any family there, I haven't visited in almost 13 years!

What's inspiring me - help I've been getting from a published author on polishing the first ten pages of the book that I'm submitting to agents (she said she loved my story!). She also helped me revise my query letter too. I had an encouraging comment from one agent I submitted to over the summer, but form rejections from seven others. After help revising, I've just submitted to three more agents and I need to research some more to send to, also.  I've also been playing with ideas for a new writing project (since NaNoWriMo is coming up in just a little over a month.)