poppies

Last week, my mom treated us to some confections from our favorite natural foods store. One of the desserts I selected was a piece of poppyseed cake - different from the usual bundt cake style but chock full of poppyseeds, topped with fluffy icing and containing a hint of lemon. (Side note: everytime I go to type in "poppy" I accidentally type "poopy" - must be the phase I'm in ;) ).

Since then, I went on the hunt to find a recipe that would duplicate, or at least approximate, this scrumptious dessert. So far the closest I've come is this recipe, but found it a little too buttery. The hunt is still on, but here's a glimpse of my efforts last week.

And in other poppy-related news :), I'm finally ticking a few more sewing projects off my list. Here are a couple I just finished this week and added to my etsy shop:

painting the town

This week we were blessed with an abundance of fun things to do - especially welcome after more than a week of sickness for 5 out of 6 of us. :)

Wednesday and Thursday morning I took the kids to our local arts center to participate in a couple of children's programs on the Civil War which was part of a 5-day free historical program visiting our community. They got to learn about the life as a solider and participate in a number of circle games and songs which are part of the fabric of African-American culture. I love when we can take advantage of educational opportunities during the summer - vacation homeschooling at its best!

In the evening, we headed to the red tent for Civil War-era music and some amazing performances by actors portraying key figures in the Civil War.

Today we headed to the strawberry patch. Yummy red organic berries quickly filled our buckets. Brie was motivated to get her bucket filled to the brim. Reese was more interested in inspecting the berries and kept chucking out the ones that didn't pass muster until we out the kabosh on that activity. ;)

 

This is the first time we had visited that farm - I discovered it on pickyourown.org. Visit the link if you also delight in picking your own produce and want to find a nearby location in your area.

We ended up with 3.5 gallons of strawberries, most of which are now in the freezer, some are waiting to be snacked upon, and the others will be put to good use in strawberry shortcake (an IOU Father's Day gift to Dave since I was still under the weather last week).

big shoes to fill

Ben may have big shoes to fill...

...but he sure does want to follow in his daddy's footsteps!

on beauty

Yesterday, I posted at (in)courage on the journey God has taken me on in the last four years in learning to live without makeup and accept His definition of what He thinks is as beautiful. He has so blessed me with the comments and stories shared by women in response to the post.

One of these comments (thank you Betty!) had a poem of beauty tips which I wanted to share here - I think it captures the heart of what God means when He says to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience:

For attractive lips,
Speak words of kindness.


For lovely eyes,
Seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,
Share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,
Let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,
Walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

-Author Unknown

guest posting at (in)courage

Tomorrow (or today, if you're reading this on Sunday), I'm posting over at (in)courage under the "Daily Guests" column. It's my first guest post and I can't help but smiling that it also happens to appear on Father's Day because I hope that whatever and whenever I write, that it's for Him and because of Him. Happy Father's Day, Abba. :)

scarecrows in melon patches

I'm going through the book of Jeremiah with my mom and one of my sisters using Kay Arthur's, "Listening to God in Difficult Times," which is part of her New Inductive Study Series. If you've never encountered one of her studies and like to get into the meat of the Word, check out her studies. (One feature I loved on her site was the ability to choose a study based on "no homework," "15 minutes of homework" or "one hour of homework.")

Anyway...
I'm in Jeremiah Chapter 10 and encountered a boxing match. The opponents? Idols vs. God. So that you may know the opponents a little better, here is a synopsis of how each is described throughout the chapter:

Idols: can't speak, can't walk, wooden, worthless, perishable, fraudulent, dressed up, objects of mockery, images, and my favorite, like scarecrows in melon patches

God: Lord, King, eternal King, true God, living God, Maker, Portion of Jacob, Lord Almighty

Any guesses as to who might win each round and every match? That should be a rhetorical question.

But, I suspect, for many of us (myself included), what actually happens is that we put our idols up against God and get them to duke it out, hedging our bets that this time, our idol will come through.

This got me wondering why it is easy to fall into the trap of trusting in an idol and thinking it has the power to do anything.

Perhaps it has to do with seeing and believing. Like when I'm emotionally frazzled and want to talk with someone, it's easier to reach out to a fellow human whose voice I can easily hear and whose arms can hug me in sympathy. But God is teaching me to turn to Him first when I need a friend and counsel. And that even though I may have a hard time discerning His whispers above my own voice and the enemy's clamor and can't feel His arms around me, He still is there, listening and speaking to my heart, hugging me with His peace, reassuring me He won't leave.

Or when we have a whole lot of bills to pay, it's easy to fall into the trap of being reassured by a bank account that has enough money in it to cover our bills. Because trusting and believing God for every penny can turn into a roller coaster ride where doubt that God will come through in the end threatens to derail the car at every turn.

Or when I need a little extra reassurance of protection, it can be easy to fall into the trap of seeking security in things I can see. I fell headfirst into that trap last year (and still cringe about it). Dave was out of town for a few nights and I had just finished reading the book, "A Lion to Guard Us" to the kids. So when a snowfall presented us with an opportunity to make some snowmen, I decided to make a snow lion. And then, just as the little boy in the book drew comfort from a lion-shaped door knocker his father had given him before heading out to sea, I began to imagine we had a snow lion sitting out front, guarding us until Dave returned home. Pathetic, right? But that's exactly what idols are and what might start out as seeming all fun and innocent can quickly turn into a slippery slope down the path of destruction.

And that is the deception of idolatry. It makes you think it's harmless and blinds you to the fact that you dethroned the eternal King, however momentarily, in your life. Thankfully, God quickly called me to account on the "snow lion incident" and I pray He uses it to sharpen my awareness to idols that want to creep into my life.

For creep they will. But we have the reassurance from Jesus in John 20:29 that we are blessed when we have not seen and yet believe.

And, in the words of Paul in his letter to the Philippians,"I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (chapter 3, versus 12-14  NIV) Amen.

rhythm and mood

After having a total breakdown in the middle of last night (a result of not being able to fall asleep until 3 a.m., a sick child who was too agitated to sleep soundly and running around with many balls in the air for so long), I really needed to hear this song by JJ Hellar. It's been one of my favorites for a while (and a great song to run to).

Thankfully God's mercies are new every morning and He's teaching me a valuable lesson in the meantime. :)