What Millie's Learned in June 2013

1. Vinegar works surprisingly well on bathroom fixtures.

2. We can glorify God in our failure and our repentance - perhaps glorify him the most when we are the weakest.

3. Just this: that God didn't save us to stand on our own two feet, and we can't earn anything, because we already have everything.

4. I don't even understand Taylor Swift music videos.

5. Taking six kids to the park is an exercise for one's head counting abilities!

6. That, at nineteen, I can already look back at a past with nostalgia and regret.

7. Keep an eye out for slippery bags of potatoes that just might fall off your shopping cart in the grocery store parking lot and have to be brought to your car by chivalrous, middle-aged men.

8. Eating snow crab is like life - it's a messy business and sometimes you get hurt, like crab shell in the thumb, but there's nothing better.

9. I'm a people pleaser. Yes, I am.

10. Don't let anything prevent you from wearing sun hats on the beach - even if you're bundled in sweaters and there's nothing but clouds for miles.

11. Five year olds think that even housework is fun when you're at your grandmother's house and two year olds think that vacuuming is a game. (*evil auntie laugh*)

12. Life is a constant measuring of grace I don't deserve.

- Millie

What I've learned in the month of June

I'm kicking off our new "series" called "What I've learned in the month of..." by sharing with you 15 (I've limited myself. You're welcome!) things I have learned in the month of June.  May they inspire you to reflect on the things that you have learned this past month.

                                                   -Abigail

1.  Babies come when babies decide they are going to come, even when no one is expecting them quite so quickly.

2. I need to remember to pack a little homebirth kit  in my doula bag when I go to births.

3. I can deliver a baby!

4. Cucumber beetles are depressing.

5. Dr. Bronner's soap and water doesn't do any favours to your zucchini plants and doesn't really kill cucumber beetles either.

6. Squishing cucumber beetles isn't as bad as it sounds and it definitely kills them.

7. Homemade flubber is AWESOME.

8.  My 2 year old loves homemade flubber.

9. Homemade flubber doesn't love my 2 year old.

10. My 2 year old hates haircuts that involve homemade flubber.

 11. My 2 year old is cute no matter what his hair 

       looks like.

  

12. Homemade sorbet is delicious and even more so when eaten out of teeny delicate cones on a hot, muggy, summer day.

13.  Ordinary meals taste better when they are served in a pretty dish.

 14. Bubbles are awesome. 

And....15.

Two Words

I went for a walk, last night, and I did what I had been promising myself I would do ever since spring arrived - I picked some of the daisies that were growing by the side of the road. They were buggy and imperfect - like life, and I thanked God for them.

I thought about the two tractors that had passed me earlier and the two men driving them. I wondered if they had noticed the flowers that line the ditches of this country road. With the daisies clutched in my sweaty fist (along with five sprigs of timothy and one lone indian paintbrush) I headed for home and it was just a chance moment that made me look up - into the setting sun ensconced in cloud - and it was sending beams of light down to earth. That glorious evening light was shining down on everyone. Maybe they didn't even know it.

And as I looked at it, two words danced in my head.

Common grace.

Just yesterday: A conversation about how some people don't believe that God shows mercy and grace to unbelievers and one man's bold declaration that, without God's restraining hand, Hitler could have been worse.

Just this morning: This quote written about Brother Lawrence (just a cook in a monastery many, many years ago) - "As for the miseries and sins he heard of daily in the world, he was so far from wondering at them, that, on the contrary, he was surprised that there were not more, considering the malice sinners were capable of; that for his part he prayed for them; but knowing that God could remedy the mischiefs they did when He pleased, he gave himself no farther trouble."
(quote from "The Practice of the Presence of God")

Sometimes His hand restrains. Sometimes it gives.

Sometimes we see it and thank Him. Sometimes we totally miss it.

Sometimes it is big like a miraculous salvation from physical death. Sometimes it is beautiful like a well-played symphony. Sometimes it is happy like finding a five dollar bill in the pocket of an old pair of jeans. And sometimes it's a little homely, like a cluster of buggy daisies beside a country road.

But, it is always lavish, and undeserved, and humbling.

So, I listened to David Myles singing about his love for his child, as I walked home. And I don't know whether he's a Christian or not.  At the moment, it wasn't my concern. I thanked God for a father's love, a pretty tune, and common grace.

- Millie

Photo Challenge Day 2- "What You Wore"

You know...even though it's not really what I had in my mind as my "dream dress" and I'm pretty sure if I was choosing today instead of 8 years ago, it would definitely look different...in the end...it's what I wore...and that's what makes it special.
                                                                              -Abigail

Photo Challenge by Abigail-Day 1

  As photography is a creative outlet of mine, I really thought I should do a photo challenge at some point in my life. There is no better time like the present and as "self portrait" (as much as I really dislike doing them!) was challenge number one, without further adieu...here I am.

                                                      -Abigail

Courage

At prayer meeting, as a five-year old girl prayed, she spoke of courage.

That exact word.

She prayed it for an elderly woman from our church that broke both her arms this winter. She spent several months in the hospital, had to give up her apartment and is now living in a care home. She used to go for a walk every day. She used to be able to come to church twice on Sunday. She used to cook her own meals and buy her own groceries.

And now, as she faces new places and adjustments, courage seems the perfect thing to pray for.

Courage not just to survive, to grit our teeth and get on with it. But courage to rise with flags flying.

The Bible calls it being more than conquerors in Christ. Courage, because Christ is with us –in us – through us.

It will never look the way we think. Courage is sometimes only found in the quiet places of our hearts. But that is where it begins and does its best work.

Courage to rest. Courage to adjust. Courage to make a home where you didn’t even expect to go.

That’s what the sweet voice prayed for Madam Ida.

And there isn’t a person I know that the prayer for courage couldn’t touch.

Courage for the mom on Monday morning.

Courage for the dad on a long Saturday.

Courage for the single who’s best friend gets married.

Courage for the widow with mice in her house.

Courage for the elders who search for a pastor.

Courage for the too many good byes.

Courage for the pre-operation appointments.

Courage to smile at that one person.

Because with Christ in us, this life and these circumstances are not too great for us to overcome. Really.

And not only to overcome, but in holy, well placed, Christ grounded courage, we find the gift. We find joy.

　~Liv

　
　
　

Because, as much as you may or may not want to admit it...you know...there is a ballerina inside all of us. ;)

-Abigail xx