"Raindrops on Roses, and Wiskers on Kittens..."

Julie beat me to a great blog idea I had a long time ago. A favorite things blog. Sometimes I'll be using something or just walking by it and think how much I just love that little thing. It may be practical, it may be decorative, it may be both, but it's always a joy in a simple day. It's so easy to want to get new things or add new things. I think sometimes it's good to sit back and be thankful for some of your favorites.

So, I've decided to share some of mine and then I'll be tagging some of you guys in the end.:)

1) My recent find of a yellow Pyrex vintage bowl from the thrift store. I love this thing. It is a bowl, but it's square also so it's perfect for salad. I usually use a bowl but the heavy veggies are quick to roll to the bottom, they still do with this but not as easily. It will forever be dubbed the salad bowl. I will only trade it in if I find the one that's red. These were made during the issuing of all the primary Pyrex bowls. (i could have cropped out the hot wheel guy in background but I thought I'd keep it real:)

Lilo wanted to "Vana" it for me...:) 2) Superkid's Room:

I just love his room. I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps it will be topped by the girls when I get it done. I love the simplicity and the toys. The girls are more into messy little trinkety things. His is simple and easy to pick up. I love the bib curtains I found when we moved in. I love the old quilt I've blogged about before that just is perfect for the decor left by my friend Karen's son Trevor.

I love the old purple toy box that use to be my brothers and then mine when I was little and was constructed by my grandpa who is now gone.
I'm not crazy about Sponge Bob and Patrick but someone gave those to him and he loves em'. :*
I love the little construction worker baskets from a Easter Clearance that we have toys in thought the room (one on his dresser), they go so cute with the theme of the border.

I love the fact that he wanted a loft so we created this little play cubbie area underneath. I just recently moved in the red CD/DVD cases when they were no longer needed in the living room. They now have various things: board books, superhero's, plastic cowboy's and Indians, finger puppets...any little collection that can fit in the little cubbies that come out to play with and slide back in for clean up.

I don't have time for to many toy sessions, but if I were still a kid, I'd love his room. 3) My old and very old cookbooks. The older the better. I have even an older one from the late 1800's but it's falling apart so I don't put it out. My favorites are the ones women in the 40's, 50's, and 60's have put their own notes in, or folded up clippings of recipes. From the days when women really used their cookbooks, and really worked in the kitchen.

4) My "Midnight Rose" Royal Albert teacup and saucer. My SIL Joan was with me when I spotted this at Buchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. I just gasped over it because I loved that it was blue roses (I love blue roses, and lavender ones too). She majorly surprised me when I opened it for Christmas 10 years ago this Christmas. Thanks Joan, again:).

5) My poetry book given to me by my parents when I was 14. This book was the cornerstone of my love for reading and writing poetry. I have memorized many of the ones inside and just love some old haunting favorites. The inscription on the inside is written in my dad's writing and says:

"To our daughter Alicia, April 1st 1990- from Mom & Dad"

6) This picture of my dad. I recently found a frame for it. It was his second grade picture. My dad was never very photogenic unless he thought something was genuinely funny. I love this picture because he must have really thought the photographer was worth smiling for. It was the smile he made when the kids did funny cute things as toddlers too. It's a treasure.

7) My yellow tea kettle. A goodwill find many years ago, I will never get another unless it goes south completely. On rainy days it literally calls to me to have a cup of tea and a nice run through some Josh Groban or Enya music.

8 & 9) My old lamp and framed adelvise.

The lamp was being taken out to the trash (I know shreek real loud!) by my neighbor. I happen to see him and ran outside. Trying to calm down I said "are you going to throw that away?" I rescued it and have loved it every since. Recently I saw a similar one in a antique store. It has the original plug so though it works, I don't leave the room with it on.

(sorry the pic is blurry)

The framed adelvise is a real treasure of mine. Rick brought it back from Europe for me from the alps. I have always loved the song and he thought it would be a fun gift. I have had it on a my dresser for nearly 12 years now.

10) My babies wall.

I will never change this. It reminds me that they are all my babies no matter how old they get. They are in birth order, and under them the verse that reminds me of my mission in parenting:"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates." Duet 6:6-8

11) The vintage aprons I found on my trip to Washington.

I wear these all the time now. One is a little tiny on me, but hey, I can always work into it right? :) I even walk down the street forgetting to take them off when I'm taking something to my neighbor. I usually get looks. No one knows what to do with a woman who looks like a housewife anymore. I love it.

SO! I think this would be a great meme!

I tag Tricia, Christina, Katy, Lynn, Christy, Judy, Pebbles (welcome!), Kristen, Amy, Karen, and Daja

Life Is A Ministry Of Reconciliation

I've wanted to come back to the topic I brought up a few days ago. If you don't know what I brought up go here and scroll to the bottom of the post.

First I have to give you a short trip to where my head was a few weeks ago. I wrote a post I didn't publish because of the negative attitude I was having regarding christian people. Any time there is bitterness in my heart toward my brothers and sisters, whether I agree with them or not, I am in sin. Worse than that, I was letting their opinions quench my passion for my Savior and my intimate relationship with him. He showed his great love for me by doing something he has to do a lot to me. He came in to the messy table of my life, piled high with emotional grievances against others, doubt about myself, worldly distractions to avoid the issue at heart, and took his hand so to speak and swiped them all onto the floor. What was left was what he put on the table in front of me, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20:

"Now all these things are from God (this is in reference to the prior verse about the new things come in Christ as apposed to the old things of the flesh), who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of :Christ, be reconciled to God."

This spoke many things to me. (1) I was looking at the flesh, at man, and I was frustrated. (2) I was not reconciled to God in my heart because I was letting baggage get in the way. (3) I was not keeping the main thing the main thing....that being, the ministry of reconciliation which required the forgiving of man's faults and my own and like Christ, not holding them against them or myself.
So, first God used it to startle me....BE RECONCILED ALICIA!
Next, he used it to reconcile my heart to my fellow men.
Last, he began to show me the beauty of the simplicity of this truth in relationships.
The beauty of the ministry of reconciliation. That ministry that Paul here says we have been given, and that we are to be ambassadors of.
How often in life we let so much crowd in and loose the main simplicity of life. The burden that is light and easy that Christ brought to us to carry. He came to do one thing, reconcile humanity to God. We should, I should reflect his example and be reconciled and proclaim reconciliation.
Now, to understand this, we have to remember the main problem in the gospel message. The Grand Canyon of sorts between Man and God. The separation that sin has caused. We are first to be burdened with this for every man made by God, every person walking the planet. Second, we are to trickle down this concept to our everyday relationships. We are to be in a mindset of reconciliation and I present to you that it is the opposite of the one thing the enemy comes to do....divide what was meant to be harmoniously together.
THIS is how this effects and is applicable to parenting. Even as I write (And I do so mainly for my own benefit as I've had a hard time sorting out what the Lord has been trying to show me. It's like some big math problem that I'm not understanding and he is trying to map out for my feeble mind one fragment at time) I struggle to explain the concept clearly although it is amazingly simple....it is deeply complex as well.
I said that I was asking God what the key element was that made relationships between parent and child turn out right. Please go back and read that paragraph as I don't want to make this any longer than it all ready is!:) "..and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,..." Hmmmm, a ministry, given to me, of reconciling. What does it take to reconcile to God? Humility, repentance, admission of need, admission of sin, burden for closeness to God.....on and on. What does it take to be reconciled to people? Humility, repentance, loosing the right to be right, caring more about harmony than being right, repentance of sin of wanting to be right and in control, forgiveness of faults done against me, making the relationship more important than what I think is the way things aught to be, a burden for closeness.
Somewhere in here is the key to the way I want to parent. I believe that the enemy divides many families in many different ways. He will use the world and the influence of it to divide. He will use legalism and the desire of a parent to control their child to divide. He will use selfishness and everyone wanting to just be right to divide. He has a pocket full of tricks with one mission in mind....to mess up what God meant to be reconciled. God meant for us to be reconciled to himself. He meant for a husband and wife to be reconciled. He meant for a child and a parent to be reconciled. He means for the body of Christ to be reconciled and he means for us to call out to the lost to be reconciled as well.
We loose reconciliation with our children when we want to be right above wanting God's will for them. We loose it when we reflect law instead of joy for God's glory. Because the fact is, and this is the very thing I am longing to grasp and shove down into my soul as deep as it will go, is that God's word stands alone. I can present God's word to my child (as I aught) and leave the rest up to God! It sounds so simple but it works practically to the very nitty gritty of life. I don't have to be right, God's word all ready is. It's when I fight to gain control of the situation that my sinful nature rares it's head and DIVIDES me and my child. RECONCILIATION comes when I present the word of truth, pray for God to use it, take a deep breath and let Him be sovereign. Oh, if I could just grasp that. My duty is to reflect the joy, the grace, the passion God has for reconciliation in all things and for all peoples. I DON'T NEED TO BE ON A CAMPAIGN TO BE RIGHT. That campaign started with the great commission and it's truths are recorded for all of mankind and applies to all of mankind.
Is this making sense to anyone? I hope so. I hope I have not just blurted endlessly without coherent truth shining through.
I am still working out the details of this and I think it is only the beginning of finding the answer as to where things go wrong.
One thing I do know is that relationships are the most important thing on earth beyond reconciliation to God. People are eternal one way or the other. When we put our own ideas beyond what scripture says or on top of what scripture says, or if we present the truth without joy and passion for God's glory above our own desire for control, we cause division in what is meant to be reconciled. Humility is the cornerstone of reconciliation. It is the very letting go of self and what self thinks, wants, and desires to have. It is the hardest element. It is the full leaning on God to work HIS work in people and to stop thinking we bring something to the table. What we do, if anything, is part really of what HE is doing. If we get in the way of that by pushing too hard, we are still, though it may all look good and righteous to us, we are still getting in the way.
Our relationships should mean more to us than our opinions. They should be worked on and cultivated with a spirit of reconciliation at the cost of ourselves. God does not need us to be right with our kids, he needs us to speak the truth of His word and then let it speak for itself. He does not need us to push, and fret, and condemn, but he needs us to encourage, love, and inspire with the great power of his joyful gospel.....his formula for blessing, not our formula for propriety.

Whew, that was intense. I need a break now.

Happy Birthday Trish!

Wednesday, September 17th

Today is my friend Tricia's (author of "..a future and a hope")birthday!

I just wanted to say what a special friend she is. She has become one of my spiritual sistas! She is real with me, and we can talk about anything without being afraid of sounding un-whatever. More than that though, she has been on an earnest journey to seek the glory of God. She lives a simple life like I do without many frills. We have that in common and it gives us a shared since of humor. She is even better at it than me though, being frugal I mean. She is the bread making queen and everyone in our church loves to get some of her tasty baking, especially when she makes up some Italian focaccia or ciabatta. She is a math wiz and I bow to her on that one too. :) I can drop in at Tricia's house anytime, and I mean anytime and she does not mind. She has modestly and gives graciously. She is devoted to homeschooling her kids and is good at it. She has had learning challenges to deal with her homeschooling and presses on trusting God. She longs for God to provide a home for her family in these rough california locations and yet has been so patient to wait for what is best as that has not come to her yet. She had a rough start in life and has become a shining star as a proverbs 31 woman.

I am so proud of her! I love having her as a friend/sista in the Lord! Kudos out to you Trish!

Have a wonderful, wonderful birthday!!!!!

Go Visit My Friend Karen To Hear Her Story of Ike

My friend Karen use to own my house. She and I went to Jr. High together at the school my kids go to now. She has ended up in TX. I was amazed to read her story of the surviving of Ike. You have to go there to read her account. Go to Love The Monkey Life, and remember to scroll down since blogs read from most recent to past entries.

My friend Amy also lives in TX and wrote about Ike. She was brave enough to step out and feel it!

Honestly ladies...I'll take my shakin'-quakin' california any day.

I'm thankful God protected them.

Pray for those still in need from the storm.

Menu In The Cupboard

Monday's my brain is on food. It's the day I fine tune the menu, and if it's needed, look over coupon deals, and shop for groceries. Every other Monday is only fine tuning whats in the house till pay day. That is this week. So, I thought I'd take the time to start posting the menu. It's in The Cupboard , along with links if the item has a recipe in the Cupboard as well. Please let me know if you have trouble with any of the recipes or if you kick them up a notch!

Thank you for sending me some food links Christina and Christy! That's my next step is adding that to blog. I have to do one thing at a time right now to avoid being in front of the computer too much. Now...off to make that Tuscan Bean Soup and throw it in the crock pot cause I'm off to Tricia's house after picking the girls up from school!