‘prettyer’

brittany started our day with a good word
from ‘valley of vision’, the last bit of p. 6
(look it up. you probably want to have that book
on your shelf. $10 @ amazon)

i was picking amanda’s brain for ideas about
intentional scriptural training and she shared
this lovely example that she used with clara
this season: she wrote out colossians 4:2,
“devote yourselves to prayer,
being watchful and thankful.”

she wrote the verse on a poster and added
pictures of people they love and put it in her room.
together, they pray for people on the poster and watch, over
time, for specific answers to their requests.
they try to talk about God’s answers — yes, no, wait –
to help clara develop a watchful and thankful heart.
love it. love it.

nathan’s writing homework from this afternoon, below.
number 4 is cracking me up. sorry, henry.

hair clippy – finally i can stop replacing
caroline’s lost hair bows. and if any one of you clever girls
can find/make these for cheaper, you’ve got my business.

a quick chuckle & a hearty ‘amen’

cracking me up – these cheeky business cards by jasmine raznahan

bald guy greetings, click on the card to see the punchline
(‘you’re welcome’ is killing cory & i. several of the cards
actually made me choke i was laughing so hard. i hope my
mom doesn’t read all of them, though.)

and on a quieter, pre-bedtime note:

baby chase (charles anthony) bazant was born this afternoon!
i can’t wait to meet him. congrats, cayley and jordan.

paige kicked theological butt tonight
(wait, can i say that?!)
when she was done with our ‘worth in Christ’ &
being made in His image, our mouths were
basically hanging open & i know at least i had tears
streaming down my face (others, too?). i turned to olimpio at
the end and we both had the same dazed/humbled/
utterly utterly grateful & melted look on our faces
and he said,
“i stopped writing it down at some point
because i knew i wouldn’t forget those words.”

bingo.

we are made in His Image,
therefore we are worth redeeming.
whenever he looks at us and see his
own reflection, it brings him delight.

amen & sleep tight, friends.

not exotic enough

kara’s spot-on words are ringing in my head:
how we feel like the ordinary, repetitive patterns
of our daily life aren’t “exotic” enough to warrant
prayers for supernatural, Holy Spirit intervention;
asking Him to grab us, to help us, to hold our tongue,
to resist being harsh or quick-tempered with these kiddos,
to beg Him to intercede and provide Himself.
today.
right now.
in a few minutes.
when the chaos levels start rising in the
apartment at, oh, 3:30pm on a wintry (read: indoors) day.

john newton’s encouragement:

“You have need of patience;
and if you ask, the Lord will give it;
but there can be no settled peace till our will
is in a measure subdued.

Hide yourself under the shadow of His wings;
rely upon His care and power;
look upon Him as a physician who has graciously
undertaken to heal your soul of the worst sickness, sin.

Yield to His prescriptions and fight against every
thought that would represent it as desirable to be
permitted to choose for yourself.
When you cannot see your way,
be satisfied that He is your leader.”
utterance of the heart, p. 344

caroline: “i want koo-kees (cookies), mommy! i didn’t have kookees yet, mom!”
kj: “what’s that on your face?”
caroline, a bit too gleefully: “cha-kwit!” (chocolate)
(oops, dead giveaway, sweetpea)

ps – here’s how we handle the stir-crazy
afternoons of winter. we call it ‘fortress’
and it involves every couch
cushion you can get your hands on
& a good number of blankets, as well.

betsy prefers to watch from the safety
of the blue couch, thankyouverymuch.

happy afternoon, friends.

there’s no way

cory was rolling his eyes
and i was about to shake with sobs.

jennifer hudson. seriously. seriously! love it.
(see it in the theatre if you can. dreamgirls.)

catechism

pop quiz:

q1: who made you?
a1. yo daddy
a2. God
a3. i’m a self-made woman

q2: what else did God make?
a1. caramel macaroons from bouchon bakery
a2. barneys warehouse sale
a3. all things

that’s right, today’s friday.
and that means it’s catechism catch-up day.
review the ones you know and learn the new one.
popsicle ceremony following
(even on an arctic day like today).

i can hear you humming from here,

“God of grace, amazing wonder,
irresistible and free,
O the miracle of mercy,
Jesus reaches down to me…”

happy friday, friends.

ps – check out 3191, a year of mornings

the first five

it the first five minutes that always seem
the hardest to me -
the first five minutes of cleaning up tinker toys,
the first five minutes of prayer when my mind is distracted,
the first five minutes of reading a story to sweet caroline when I would
rather return a phone call…

but after pressing through the first five,
the momentum takes over & the reward is sweet.

a clean house for us to play & chatter about in,
a clean heart for the Lord to work in,
a happy girl snuggled up with her mom…

the Lord is generous indeed.
to reveal himself to us in the ordinary-ness of every day life.

hymn time:
man of sorrows, what a name,
for the Son of God who came,
ruined sinners to reclaim,
halleluijah! what a Savior.

and how fresh is this line?
orla kiely designs

wednesday worship

today’s hymn – no. 575, soldiers of christ arise
red Trinity hymnal (you need to get one)
and the tune is the same as ‘crown him with many crowns’

v2 -
Stand then in his great might,
with all his strength endued;
but take to arm you for the fight,
the panoply of God.
Leave no unguarded place,
no weakness of the soul;
take every virtue, every grade,
and fortify the whole.

{panoply – a protective covering, a complete suit of armor}

Lord,
your kingdom is advancing.
work in us, work through us.
may our eyes be fixed on you,
not distracted by our thoughts & idolatrous
desires, but looking at our Creator King
as we walk through today.
you are gracious, you are merciful,
you are our God.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

hymnal, pew edition

ps – rolling over in my mind are remnants
of a good, but brief, conversation at mom’s group
today (so grateful for you girls) about how we
hate feeling judged, or that our children
are being judged, by others – our children’s behavior, their
words, their selfishness, our responses to them, anything! etc.

gentle reminders:
1. my responsibility is to the Lord alone.
He is my judge, my gracious & merciful judge,
to whom I answer and will answer ultimately.
He is also the True Parent to my children,
the True Father, of which
I am but a shadow,
a reflection of his image.

2. if others are judging me/us,
they need to repent of it.
it’s between them & God.
that’s not my concern.
i must let it go, not defend myself in
my mind, truly roll it onto Christ and
ask him to help me stop thinking about it.

I’m to (rightly) listen to my conscience &
repent constantly & as necessary, but I am Not to
be obsessing about others’ judgments. scripture
admonishes us to stop worrying & to fix our eyes on
Jesus, the author & perfecter of our faith.

i love this community!
press on, dear friends, press on.
the battle is won.
Our Redeemer is our Friend.

ps – how great was it to get to see ryan & amanda this weekend!
columbus is lucky to have you. we sure do love you guys.
and thanks for the restaurant-order-taking-notepads;
i’ve never ordered (and not received) so many cups of orange juice
(“o.j.”) or loaves of bread?! (“l.b.”)

monthly calendar

‘the only reason you’re conscious right now
is because i don’t feel like carrying you.‘
jack bauer, he’s our man.
(we’re in the beginning of season 5 now)

anne marie – thanks for asking: the hymn for today
is ‘go, tell it on the mountain’ which should come with
a waiver – you Will Not get that song out of your head
all week long. sing at your own risk.

here’s my monthly calendar template that i just
change the month name on & then write in with
my colored pens & pencils. it makes me unbelievably
happy, the colored-ness & hand-writtenness of it, that is.
it’s the little things.

monthly calendar template
kj’s january calendar, for example

and my MOM is here! a sweet last-minute treat. flew in
yesterday afternoon, worshipped with us at the evening
service last night & is here until first thing wednesday morning.
hip hip hooray for betty lou.

modesty

caroline and i watched an american in paris this
afternoon. the tap dance in front of the children
while singing, ‘i’ve got rhythm…’ so cheery.

i love how he’s supposed to be this broke painter,
thus the all-white getup, but you know those
white wool gabardine pants were hand-sewn
by some couture clothier.

‘that’s quite a dress. say, what holds that up?’
‘modesty.’

gilded toys of dust

personal devos in our house:
singing one hymn (out loud) from the
trinity hymnal, reading the 4 chapters
recommended in the m’cheyne bible reading
calendar and then praying.

we started a conversation with nathan a few
weeks ago about him starting to
read scripture by himself, his own private
devotional time. we’ve tried to figure a place in
his day for this; morning seems
like it might be the best time, but so far
we can’t seem to figure a way to make it
fit. we’ll keep trying.

today’s hymn, All for Jesus, v3:

Worldlings prize their gems of beauty
cling to gilded toys of dust,
boast of wealth and fame and pleasure;
only Jesus will I trust.

Lord,
release my hands from my
gilded toys of dust,
fix my eyes on Christ instead.

bbc ‘the office’

david brent does ‘free love on the free love highway’
and cory and i giggle like schoolgirls.
(when gareth & tim chime in, we’re complete goners)

every time.

it’s getting embarassing.

daily questions

sin is always crouching at the door…ugh. how easily my
heart deceives me (and i welcome & encourage it, to be
sure). thankfully, my Christian friends are right there to
look me dead in the eye & stare me down. double-thankfully,
scripture is doing that all day long, as well.
we have a Redeemer,
such wondrous love is this!

questions followers of John Wesley (1703-1791) were encouraged
to ask themselves every day, alone & in community:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I relly am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?

memory work for children

our current work:

-the apostles’ creed (henry)
-the Lord’s prayer (henry & caroline)
-a to z bible verses, susan hunt (h & c)
-colossians 1:15-20 (nathan)
-children’s shorter catechism
(nathan, #1-64; henry, #1-23; caroline, #1-4)
-specific prayers that our church uses

(our church says this prayer after communion:
Gracious Lord, We give you thanks for calling us out
of the darkness and into your glorious light. When we
remember the price you paid, the death of your only Son,
we can only wonder and marvel at the greatness of your love.
We give our lives to you, Lord, and pray that through your
Spirit, you will teach us how to live according to your will.
Send us out now to love and serve you as faithful witnesses
of your mercy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.)

mealtime

jenny, susan and i are talking about the ways we
can bring ‘order & loveliness’
to the routine
of family life and homekeeping.

i look forward to what you guys
come up with because i’m
desperate for advice over here.

the general template of,
weekday meals in the cates’ apt:

remembering that,
“through our daily meals
He is calling us to rejoice,
to keep holiday in the
middle of our working day.”

and

“…if they share this bread with one another,
they shall also one day receive
the imperishable bread together in the Father’s house. ‘
Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.’ “
luke 14:15,
dietrich bonhoeffer, life together.

breakfast:
-my dreamycory whips up a hot meal
(oatmeal, cream of wheat,
eggs in their various forms,
and on sundays, pancakes.

(we’re firm believers in celebrating a
pre-taste of the ‘feast that is to come’
on the Lord’s day,
oh, yeah.)

and we Strongly Encourage one rule:
keep your seats for fam devotions.
(singing*, cory reads scripture,
and prays for us.)

lunch:
- i find reading them a story aloud while
the kiddos eat makes for a calmer mealtime;
if it’s a story of the spiritual order,
it’s most likely from
the jesus story book bible,
stories jesus told or
susan hunt’s abc bible verses .

dinner:
- i prefer to dim the general lighting;
in an attempt to send a
not-so-subtle message here:

Be.Quiet.
Settle.Down.
Seriously.Now, sillypants.

- read from Catherine Vos’ Children’s Story Bible

*cates fam (xeroxed) hymnal:

we plan to upgrade to letting the kids use the
gool ol’ Trinity Hymnals
when I trust that their hands aren’t
stickywithoatmeal
and
they can turn the pages without
ripping them out.

until then,
i photocopied 26 hymns each into
2 separate ‘hymn books’.
one hymn for each letter of the alphabet.

ideally, we sing a-to-z for 26 days
and then alternate to the next songbook.

(in reality, we have, oh, fifteen of them that
are catchy + are our favorites, so we
gravitate towards those.

think: victory in jesus
notsomuch: fairest lord jesus)

spiralbound w/ a plastic cover.
completely disposable & flexible,
ideally suited for the breakfast-y embrace of
2 to 10 yr old hands.

the first hymnals has:
a – all creatures of our God and king
b – blessed assurance
c – come, christian, join and sing
d – down at the cross (glory to His Name)
e – el shaddai
f – fairest Lord Jesus
g – go, tell it on the mountain
h – how sweet the name of Jesus sounds
i – immortal, invisible
j – joyful, joyful, we adore Thee
l – lead on, O King Eternal
m – may the mind of Christ, my Savior
n – nothing but the blood (we can’t get it out of our head!)
o – o worship the King
p – praise, my soul, the king of heaven
r – rock of ages
s – silent night, holy night
t – there is a redeemer
v – victory in jesus
w – we gather together
y – ye servants of God, your master proclaim

(good luck with k, q, x and z)

living in unity

How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.
psalm 133

“People of faith are always members of a community.
Creation itself was not complete until there was community,
Adam needing Eve before humanity was whole. God
never works with individuals in isolation, but always with
people in community.” Eugene Peterson

today, an ordinary day, was special.
my heart is overwhelmed at the generosity
of the Lord to place me in community,
and today I’m thinking specifically of prayer.

the short list:
-cory, nathan, henry, caroline & even betsy, who held our hands
-chris, karen, cindy & laura
-julia

i not only enjoyed the Lord in the quiet of my
own heart in prayer throughout the day, but
He let me pray out loud with 10–ten!–other
people who love the Lord Jesus. and this is just
an ordinary wednesday.

thank you, gracious Savior, for your Body, for
taking away my heart of stone and giving me
a heart of flesh. how pleasant it is, indeed, when
brothers live together in unity.

and speaking of unity, everything is just better when you’re
in costume. ethan – superman, henry – green ranger

sacred v. secular

His entire life was lived in the sacred ordinary
that we are apt, mistakenly, to call the secular.
The regular place of prayer is the ordinary life.

e. peterson, a long obedience in the same direction, p. 50

the repetitive nature of child-rearing begs a
vision, knowing all-to-well that ‘where there is
no vision, the people perish.’ what an encouragement
to know that He has redeemed the ordinary,
that we come to know His character by offering
our daily duties as sacrifice, done cheerfully and
to His glory.

i love the cowper verse Tim often quotes,

‘my pleasure and my duty,
though opposite before,
since we have seen His beauty,
are joined apart no more.

to see the law by Love fulfilled,
and hear his pardoning voice,
transforms a slave into a child
and duty into choice.’

god’s image in individuals

God’s attributes are infinite and perfect,
but ours are finite by creation and imperfect because of the fall.
Being finite and imperfect does not allow us to think that
we can be less than the image, however. The reflection
is not the real thing, but it shows what the reality looks like.
So it is with us. We are not God, but as the image or reflection
of God, we must show what the reality of God is like.

As a reflection, we must then display the attributes of God in all dimensions
of life as God enables us to do so. What, then, are the attributes of God
that we should display, and how in our finite way do we display them?

-active & purposeful
-rational
-creative
-moral
-free & responsible
-faithful

from Donovan Graham’s, Teaching Redemptively

In trying to live out what I believe, I routinely confuse positive external
behavior for internal health, especially in my children. I yearn for them
to have their identity rooted in Christ, yet too often I emphasize their
behavior over seeking to understand their motives and thoughts and helping
them seek the Lord & his transforming power.

May He teach us how to avoid legalism by understanding that he
sustains our every step.

happy parenting today, friends.

organization templates

new year, new slate;
refining the systems of late,
dreaming of how 2007 should fall into
harmonious-scheduling-place.

to that end, i offer these simple templates.
use them as a springboard and add your own flair.
happy organizing, friends.

daily to-do list
weekly menu & grocery list

sometimes coloring can really take it out of a guy.