These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...How About You?

One of my favorite songs is from the movie The Sound of Music:

Raindrops of Roses and whiskers on kittens;

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens;

Brown paper packages tied up with strings;

These are a few of my favorite things…

The song reminds me of my childhood because Lauren and I watched the movie together over and over…and over again. Santa Clause brought me a music box that played the tune when I was in kindergarten. Like I used to tell my three-year-old preschool class, all children grow up someday. And true to the saying, I grew up…but I haven’t forgotten my childhood memories. And just like the song, they are a few of my favorite things:

My list is long…so before you read (or if you read)…I’d like to know some of your favorite childhood memories!

(I’ll limit the list this time to preschool and kindergarten because I could go on forever! )

·         My daddy playing the Georgia, There is a Fountain, Godspeed, and What a Wonderful World on the piano.

·         Lauren and I dancing with daddy in the living room when we lived in Hoover.

·         My Mama teaching me how to swim in our pool.

·         Flintstone Vitamins

·         Playing dress-up with Mama’s make-up.

·         Performing “Three Little Bears” with Lauren…our preschool movie production.

·         Singing with the youth group on choir tour…even though I was in preschool…I had a t-shirt and everything. My parents called me a little-bit big girl.

·         When I was three years old, I would draw Grandmother Funderburk a picture. She passed away that year. I would take the picture outside and ball up the paper. I thought maybe if I threw it in the air, then God would blow it up to heaven. To my disappointment, of course, the paper ball never went all the way up. My parents told me that they were sure Grandmother Funderburk could see the picture and was happy in Heaven.

·         My parents buying a swing set! They assembled it in the carport and placed it in the backyard.

·         Santa Clause bringing my first bike: purple with hot pink wheels.

·         Daddy buying me hot pink Converse high-tops…VERY COOL.

·         My mom building a snow bunny the year it snowed in April; I was four.

·         Trying to play Barbies with Lauren before she was old enough…she was probably one and a half…she kept holding the Barbie like a baby doll and saying “Oh da babeee.”

·         Watching Pete’s Dragon with Mama. I remember every song: “It’s not easy to find someone who cares”…”it’s a brazzle dazzle day”…”there’s room for everyone”…”I’ll be your candle by the water”…

·         Sitting at my drawing table in the den (living room). Daddy brought home computer paper for me to use.

·         My pet fish: Holly and Ivy the goldfish and Slurpy the algae sucker. (Slurpy died during an ice storm. Our friends the Baileys were staying with us. We had a funeral in the backyard.)

·         Moving to Tallassee in 1988. I remember Mama and Daddy knowing that God sent us there.

·         Writing a story during the move called “The Mouse without a Home” because we were homeless for two weeks during the transition and stayed with the Millers and Boppie and Grandaddy (lol).

·         Living on the McCartha farm for our first four and a half years in Tallassee. I loved to spend the night with Mamaw and Papaw. Papaw got up before daylight, ate a bowl of cereal and headed outside to work. I got up with him and ate cereal. Then Mamaw would cook a big breakfast everyday around 7:30…sausage, biscuits, eggs, and my favorite…French toast. I can smell her kitchen now! She would give Lauren and me our own biscuit dough for us to play with and bake.

·         (Okay...so one memory of when I we were a little older...Lauren, Jay, Grant, Will, and I would explore the two barns and create all kinds of wonderful things. Our best creation was a tree house in one of the pecan trees.

·         Another favorite thing to do at Mamaw and Papaw’s was to play in the cotton trailers. Jumping in the trailer was like floating on clouds. We could also mold the cotton into play houses…so much fun!

·         Mamaw also let us have access to as much fabric as we wanted and Lauren and I sewed all kinds of creations…dolls, animals, pillows.

·         Riding in the car with my mom to Montgomery every weekday so that I could go to private school with Boppie my kindergarten year. We had many great conversations during those 30 minute drives…during one of the drives I accepted Christ as my Savior.

·         We spent lots of time with Boppie and Grandaddy in 1988-89. My memories are vivid! I loved being with them. Sometimes on Friday night Boppie would make our favorite supper: Fried chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese casserole, butterbeans, and buttery biscuits. We would watch an old Disney movie.

·         On weekdays I usually had Little Debbie coffee cakes for breakfast at Boppie and Granddaddy's. On weekends, Boppie would fix pancakes made into our initials.  We would watch Pop-Eye with Granddaddy.

·         Mama would drop us off at Boppie and Grandaddy’s then I would ride with Boppie to school and Lauren went to preschool and stayed with Ginger. Boppie always listened to Faith Radio 89.1 WLBF out of Montgomery. Focus on the Family was on during our drive to school. (I still listen to this radio station online…maybe because its engrained into me. I guess it's because of Boppie that I love Kay Arthur, Joni and Friends, and Nancy Lee Demoss.)

·         Every morning on our drive to school we passed by a house with the most beautiful yard. Every square inch of the yard was manicured. Sometimes we’d see a lady working in the yard on our way home. Boppie and I decided that we would write her a letter telling her how much we enjoyed driving by her house and thanking her for the hard work that she put into her home to make it beautiful for the community. (I drew the picture :)

·         My favorite Bible story in Kindergarten…the Exodus and Passover. Boppie was a great story teller. When I became an adult, I appreciated the story so much more as it points to Jesus the Messiah. But would I have cherished the meaning as much if the seed hadn’t been planted when I was 5?...I’m so grateful to her!

·         Lauren and I making a joke collection. When something funny happened…we’d add it to our joke collection. Then whenever we were bored, we’d make each other laugh by telling one of the stories. (Okay, so only Lauren will understand this one :)

These are just some of the memories that come mind at the moment. I have many many more (of my Aunt Elizabeth (Aba) keeping me when I was little…and of my Aunt Ruth and her really cool presents (she was the college aunt)  :) …okay…I have to stop. Thank you God for memories!

Abba

Abba is an endearing form of the Hebrew word for Father (“Av”) and was used in the Aramaic language of Jesus’ day. The term is still used in Modern Hebrew. “Abba” is found three times in the New Testament: Mark 14:36 (when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane), Romans 8:15, and Galatians 4:6.

Four summers ago Nathan and I went to Israel with our church in Alabama (my dream trip). Everywhere we went we couldn’t get over the fact that we were looking at the land of the Bible…the location of most of the Bible events…the very soil where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob camped, Joshua conquered, Israel disobeyed, David was anointed and built God’s city Jerusalem, Solomon built the Temple…the land where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We saw the city where He entered this world as a tiny baby, the town where He was known as a carpenter’s son, the blessed river where He was baptized, the monstrous yet beautiful lake upon which He walked, the city where He was crucified and resurrected, the mountain where He ascended and where He will return one day... and so much more.

When we visited the Jordan River Nathan stepped away from the group. When we returned to the bus, he shared with me what later became one of his most cherished moments of the trip. I’ll tell the story in first person:

While I was waiting on the group I was kind of to myself. I noticed a small Hebrew toddler with his family. Just like toddlers do, he walked independently for the most part. Then he just threw up his arms (like toddlers do when they want you to pick them up) and just yelled “Abba! Abba! Abba!” His parents moved towards him and his dad scooped him up like dads do.

Romans 8:14-15  “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

If you want to know how to become a child of God I would love to share! The following website is a great tool to guide you! http://www.sbc.net/knowjesus/theplan.asp

From Briars to Blooms: How my Home and Heart is Changing

Nathan and I bought our first home almost two years ago. God gave us a piece of land in a place where, as my father-in-law says, receives yesterday's sunshine. The fourteen acres provides a plenty of wide-open space for the horses. Just one problem...it looked like a barren wasteland. Our piece of land needed much love. The three-year-old, barely-lived-in house was in good condition, but the land was nothing but dirt and weeds. Reality (contrasting our whimsical dream) set in as I stared out of our window during the first month in our oh-so-humble abode looking at sand, clay, thorny vines, and sweet-gum trees. A "work-in-progress" to say the least.

First things first...Nathan's parents (my amazing in-laws) came and bush hogged (mowed the weeds), dug fence post holes, and built fence. Did I mention their amazing? "This place will be beautiful," Denise told me. "Beautiful?" I thought to myself, "well...um...uh...The fencing looks really nice." Then came problem number two...I'm afraid of the dark. And man it gets dark in the country...and quiet too!

I decided within in the first month of living there that in my heart I'm really a city girl helplessly in love with a cowboy! I began to scheme how maybe we could own two properties...a little apartment in the beautifully tame Peachtree City and keep our wild country place as a weekend home. Problem number three: in no way on this earth do we have that kind of money!

Our fourteen acres are slowly...slowly changing. Did I mention the process is slow? But now, two years later, I look out my window to see grassy pastures (well for the most part). The brush piles of pushed-down Sweet Gum trees are slowly burning away. We have the frame of our barn. And the latest, landscaping in the front yard: Loropetalums, Knock-out roses, Crape Myrtles, Holly Carissa, Azaleas! Our lawn is growing greener and greener with each rain (with who knows what kind of grass and I really don't care as long as it's green). Now I enjoy sitting on my front porch early in the morning. I think about what Denise said almost two years ago: "This place will be beautiful." 

God is working in me much like "we" are working on our land (Nathan always quotes his dad saying that "We" is his French name). My Master...the Master Gardener of my heart...is cultivating its soil. And I'm changing. Jesus taught in parables in Matthew 13. He told of a farmer sowing seed into three different kinds of soil. One area was thorny. Jesus said, "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the work, and it becomes unfruitful." That's been me...pretty thorny. Season by season God has been killing off weeds of fear, weeds of control, weeds of doubt, weeds of "measuring-up". These weeds were thick and thorny. But with them gone...I can breathe again. Praise God! In the place of those weeds now I can bear fruit again!

Oh but I'm learning one more thing. Just because you kill the thorny weeds one time doesn't mean they won't grow back. My home and heart was and will be, forever on this earth, a beautiful work in progress!

Here I go...a new season of blogging.

Blogging has been around for years now. I've purposefully stayed away from the trend. Why? Not because I don't like the idea, but because I don't have any pictures of babies...I have no interesting updates...or do I? No I haven't entered the season of parenting. I don't have really cool pictures (my camera barely works). But I do have something worth blogging about. I have a very amazing relationship with the Creator of the Universe...Jesus Christ is my personal, very personal...yet public, Lord and Savior. And my journey with Him is worth sharing with anyone browsing the internet. Only the Lord knows...but maybe by the end of my journey on earth...and the end of my sharing seasons through blogging...I'll be a mommy with a really cool camera! Then rest assure I'll share updates! :)