Fret Not Thyself

Amy Carmichael (a missionary to India last century) is one of my spiritual mother's. Elisabeth Elliot (another spiritual mother) wrote a book about Amy called "A Chance to Die". Amy wrote a lot poetry during her life time, and one of her books of poems called "Toward Jerusalem" I've had since before I was married, and have always found it encouraging. Here's one of her poems that pops into my head often:

FRET NOT THYSELF

Far in the future
Lieth a fear,
Like a long, low mist of grey,
Gathering to fall in dreary rain,
Thus doth thy heart within thee complain;
And even now thou art afraid, for round thy dwelling
The flying winds are ever telling
Of the fear that lieth grey,
Like a gloom of brooding mist upon the way.

But the Lord is always kind,
Be not blind,
Be not blind
To the shining of His face,
To the comforts of His grace.
Hath He ever failed thee yet?
Never, never: wherefore fret?
O fret not thyself, nor let
Thy heart be troubled,
Neither let it be afraid.

Near by thy footfall
Springeth a joy,
Like a new-blown little flower,
Growing for thee, to make thee glad.
Let thy countenance be no more sad,
But wake the voice of joy and health within thy dwelling,
And let thy tongue be ever telling,
Not of fear that lieth grey,
But of little laughing flowers beside the way.

For the Lord is always kind,
Be not blind,
Be not blind,
To the shining of His face,
To the comforts of His grace.
He hath never failed thee yet.
Never will His love forget.
O fret not thyself, nor let
Thy heart be troubled,
Neither let it be afraid.

Website for Super Mom Wanta-be's

My good friend Hope shared this website with me: www.preschoolersandpeace.com . Do you have preschoolers? And do you need some peace in your home? Then check it out! She's a mom of 7 (soon to be 8), and has a lot of practical answers for homeschooling, cooking, chores, etc., all while having preschoolers around. You could spend a lot of time in her massive website, so beware!

This Week in Pictures

Mom, I think this card from Mongolia tastes bitter!

Guy friends. See...Ben is still a Ranger's fan, even all the way up here in the NW.

The small fall view over our fence.

Abigail's Funnies

Abby is our very poetic child...and we appreciate this quality in her. Somebody around here needs to loosen us up a bit. I think I shared with some of you the time a few months ago when she said, "Don't smell the onion song that Daddy is singing." She was referring to her Daddy's morning breath.

Well yesterday, I sent Abby to the bathroom for some discipline. After I was done explaining to her what she did wrong, she looked up at me with a pitiful face and said, "But it's just my poor little bottom!" I couldn't help laughing.

October 20, 2007

"Worthy are You, our LORD and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."
Revelation 4:11

SPOKANE OR BUST!

Well, it looks this Alexander clan will be packing up and moving on...moving on up to Spokane, Washington, that is! As far as exact date, and exact location in Spokane, that is yet to be determined.

Strange Contentment

Are you struggling with contentment? Are you having a hard time being thankful? Well have I got a remedy for you! Our pastor preached an outstanding sermon on contentment and gratitude this past Sunday, called "Strange Contentment. You can listen to it at: https://www.christkirk.com/.

"Our tendency — when we are worrying on our knees — is to try to figure out a way for our
hearts and minds to guard the peace of God. We consider contentment, the peace of God, to
be our soft innards which must be protected by the hard shield of our works, plans, thoughts,
understanding, and so on. We try to protect the wrong thing with the wrong thing. But the
peace of God guards your hearts and minds; your hearts and minds do not protect the peace
of God. The peace of God is armor. It is no fragile thing. The peace of God is not a guttering
candle in a tornado, certain to go out. The thing that mystifies us about this is how strong the
peace of God is. And one thing is sure; we are told here that the peace of God guards us, and
we do not guard it."

Luther Quote

"Ordinary works, done in faith and from faith, are more precious than heaven and earth."
- Martin Luther

This Week in Pictures

Jim and Julia.

Melody, baby Peter, Me, Julia Pumpkin-Head, and the birthday boy's happy wife KeriAnn.

Precious Possessions!

Little man.
Ready for dance class!

Hannah's summer time accomplishment: navigating the monkey bars!

So here's a picture of Ben, from Julia's Baptism day. I think the kids were tired of picture-taking!

Yes, that's lovely Idaho in the background

Aunt Sandi, do you remember that you bought this baby walker when Hannah was a baby? Well now it's on it's fourth use! And it looks like it tastes just as good as it did the first time round! Julia's other favorite snack is Daddy's finger!

Fall is in my kitchen

I like baking during the falltime. We Alexander's have developed a few traditions, one of them being baking Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread and making Caramel Apples every fall. Tonight I put our first squash of the season into the oven: butternut squash with butter, brown sugar and marshmallows on top. I've also really been on the lookout for crockpot recipes. So here's one that Mom and Nikki have both asked for, and now it's here for all to enjoy: Crockpot Granola! Very easy...very yummy. So here you go...

Crockpot Granola
4 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup honey
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup wheat germ
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c sesame seeds/sunflower seeds

Spray crock pot with cooking spray. Combine all ingredients in crockpot and stir. Cook on low 4 hours, with lid ajar, sitrring occasionally.

This is just the beginning...

So I'm entering the world of blogging with my first blog! You may be asking how I'm going to have the time to blog. That's a good question. I guess we'll find out! It definately won't be when I'm done with all my chores, because then I would never have time to blog. So, while my living room floor is scattered with toys, books, and shoes (didn't we used to have carpet?), and my kitchen floor hasn't been swept since yesterday or mopped since Saturday, and there's sheets in the dryer waiting to be folded (hey, at least there washed!), etc. etc., I'm going to take a break and blog...with a latte' of course! As my husband puts it, "All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy." So, I thought it would be fun to spend a few minutes blogging here and there. We wouldn't Mommy to become dull would we? So thanks for joining me on my blogging adventure. Here you'll find many Musings from a Mother of Four, quotes from books, recipees, oh...and of course lots of pictures of the kids (the only reason many of you will be looking at my blog, I'm sure). That's okay....look at the pictures of the kids and skip the rest of my babbling. Well, Bon Voyage!

Here's us!...well almost us. My hubby is taking the pic. Nobody ever asks if I'm running a daycare center...we're all blonde, so they can take a good guess who's they are!