HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEODATA!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANTINO!!!

A Beautiful Life...

One year ago and brand new to the world....



Forgive our voices. Mary is the only person that can sing... maybe you should turn the sound down...

Happy Birthday Miss Teodata!!!



Again, shrill voice warning.
Happy Birthday Santino!!!

Down Here Under the Rainbow

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

I love rainbows. I mean really love them. I look for them every time it rains... and in The Burgh that's quite a bit, only you need to have some sunlight to make a rainbow, and that we don't have ... much of. So when I see a rainbow, it makes it all the more thrilling.

We have trinkets and jewelry, even artwork with Scripture written on it to remind us of God's promise(s) to us, but a rainbow? God made the rainbow as a remembrance. He looks upon it and remembers. He doesn't go to the Christian bookstore and buy a WWJD bracelet and hand it to us. He doesn't buy us cross neclaces... He set(s) this bow in the sky... in the sky! He doesn't do it all of the time though does He? No. Doesn't that make it all the more important... "special" for us?

As some of you may know, my beautiful sister Mary has Lupus. As with many serious autoimmune disorders, the Lupus did not come alone. Since her original diagnoses, she has had three more serious disorders tacked on. You'd never know it to look at her... She's the TV Girl... the model... and she doesn't let it hold her back from doing, doing, doing. 

A few days ago we received the news out loud, she has yet another very serious autoimmune disorder. This is one that we all supposed she had had, it's just that no doctor had ever said it out loud. It took Mary all of the 20 minute car ride home to process it, and move on.  She went for a run when she go home... She's upset, we all are, but there's nothing to do, so she's living...taking advantage of the time when she feels well enough to get things done. Truly, if I were her, I would have sat down and gave up 10 yrs ago... I don't know how she does it.

In the mean-time, Adam left for work early yesterday morning and not two minutes later, he called.  He knows how I love rainbows. He also never gets to see them when I do (perhaps he's wondered if I'm make-believing them?). He was excited to tell me about this one. From his vantage point, the rainbow appreared to be over our neighbor's house, but when I looked at it, Mary and Aaron's house sat directly under it... like the Lord painted it for me. I ran to grab my camera but when I came out it was pouring down rain. It was gone that fast.  I knew however, that God had placed that bow over Mary's house to show me His promise that she is a child of His.  He will take care of her. I love rainbows. I love the Lord for making them and sharing them with us.

 

and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

On With It

Sitting down to brood over our sorrows, the darkness deepens about us and creeps into our heart, and our strength changes to weakness. But, if we turn away from the gloom, and take up the tasks and duties to which God calls us, the light will come again, and we shall grow stronger.
 ~ J.R. Miller

NEIMP BLESSINGS

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings, see what God hath done!

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

[And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.]

....Do not be discouraged, God is over all...

Johnny is our Math Boy... loves anything that has to do with numbers... counts everything, measures everything. When he asked me what the highest number was, I thought of the national deficit and then replied "There isn't a highest number Johnny, it's infinity." I don't know if it's Johnny's finite mind, and the fact that he has to number everything, or if what he said happened, truly happened.  A few days after my defining infinity (with my all too finite vocabulary) he came to me and said that God had told him that there was a highest number, and it's name is "Neimp".  He never wavered from this name when I would question him, and now it has, in our home,  replaced the proverbial children's use of "Infinity"... You know, "I have a thousand cars." "Well I have a million cars." "Well, I have infinity!" ... and everyone has to shut up.

We have tried to explain to the boys that we (and God) are the only people privy to neimp and that if they use it outside of the house, no one will know what they are saying. None-the Less, they continue to use it... almost all day long.  "He hit me neimp times." "You made neimp PB&J sandwiches."

In my head (and only in my head...at least for now) I'm using it. "Wow, there's like neimp snow." " I have neimp things to do." As I was thinking of God's infinite blessings, and trying to count them, I thought of neimp... I know I'll never reach the number neimp (if nothing else b/c it may not even exist), so trying to count my blessings and reaching neimp is kind of fun.

There's no better sleep that follows one of two things; falling asleep while praying, or falling asleep while counting neimp blessings... one of which, for me is Johnny Phillips.

This is why I also like Bing's version:

When I'm worried and I can't sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

When my bankroll is getting small

I think of when I had none at all

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads

And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds

If you're worried and you can't sleep

Just count your blessings instead of sheep

And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings