I won something

Several weeks ago I entered a giveaway on the Take Heart blog for a soap spitter. These soap dispensers are so fun and whimsical and they're made by Close 2 My Art. I actually won! I was so excited, probably more excited than the rest of my family, but hey, a sock monkey soap dispenser....what's not to be excited about! I love it. We have it in the downstairs bathroom and I think it is incredibly fun. I wanted to thank Danielle for this giveaway too and for making me aware of another place to buy unique, handmade gifts.

I took this picture of my precious kids last week. Aren't they so sweet................... (just look below for their favorite pose!)


















They love to make faces for their mama's camera, followed immediately by, "Can we see the picture!"

Green!

Lots of green in our house, inside and out! I am so excited to see the signs of spring.

How deep the Father's love for us

I love this song so much. We sang it at First Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg and it is really one of my favorites. It's also a beautiful reminder of His sacrifice for us, especially as we move toward Easter.


How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

From the MSG, Eph. 2:8-9:

"Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving."

I read this verse today on a blog called A Holy Experience as the writer spoke about her reasons for doing Lent. Her post made me think about Lent more than usual. We attend a Presbyterian church and Presbyterians don't really do Lent. I decided, however, to do Lent this year. I'm not using it to give up something like sugar or caffeine, to struggle for 40 days and then take it back up at the end. I am using Lent this year to pray for believers around the world who are being persecuted for their faith. I doing Lent to think about being more intentional about how I spend our money, to be a better steward of what God has given our family. And I am working to weed out some junk from my life. I love to read blogs. I have many that I read every day, but so many of them are not filling me with things that are glorifying to God. So, I have been on a search for blogs about faith and about loving Jesus. I found a site this week called Faith Blogs, that features writers doing just that, writing about faith, family, about crafts, photography, and home too. Thing I love to read about and things that inspire me and a focus on their relationships with God and their struggles. I found A Holy Experience by way of Faith Blogs today.

So back to Lent. I want to really use this time to grow deeper in my relationship with Jesus. There are believers all over the world who are willing to die for their faith, who are willing to struggle and be persecuted because they believe their Jesus is worth it. Do I? Do I have what it takes to be in the world, but not to be overcome by it? That's what I'm thinking about this Lenten season.

Building is so much fun

Mark, Peyton, and Liam spent some time this weekend creating stuff in the garage. He let them nail pieces of wood together to create things like a dragon and a spaceship. Liam told me, "Dad drilled pilot holes and then I nailed the wood together." Mark is picking Liam up from preschool today and Liam told me they are going to build something together. When I asked what he was going to do with all of these wooden sculptures he is making, he said, "We'll just put them in the attic."

I'm off to the church for Bible study. We have been digging into the book of Esther and it has been a really incredible thing to study one book in depth, something I have not done before. I'm enjoying the homework and the discussion with my small group. And I'm looking forward this week to the sunshine and the signs of spring!

Spring is coming

"The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulnes; his mercies begin afresh each morning." Lamentations 3:22-23

I love this verse, especially now that spring is slowly beginning to show itself. We have lots of buds on our tress and all kinds of things poking up out of the ground. It will be interesting to see what grows here at our Richmond house. I do miss my daffodils and my rosebushes in Harrisonburg, but I also look forward to planting some new things here. Just a few short weeks until the official first day of spring. I am looking forward to warmer weather and to being able to play outside without my coat!

Mark's grandma gave us an amaryllis for Christmas this year and it is the most lush and beautiful one I have ever seen. It has grown so tall that we had to stake it with a tomato stake. It's taller than Liam now!