He is Faithful

The last couple of months I've been troubled by the ending of King Solomon's life.  I've been thinking that if King Solomon was so wise, did so many great things for God, and still fell away what is to keep me from doing the same?  

My thoughts were making me miserable.  Finally, I started praying instead of worrying (Good idea. Right?) and God showed me that I was looking at it all wrong.  It's not that I have to be so great or so strong or dependable.  He is the One who is faithful.  Whew!  What a relief!  

In 2 Thess. 3 the Amplified says, "Yet the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and set you on a firm foundation and guard you from the evil one."

I don't have to be strong in my own strength.  He is there daily strengthening me.  It's not about what I do or don't do.  It's about living in relationship with Him.  

One of my favorite scriptures has been Galatians 3.  Here it is in the Message:

1 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.
 2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!
 5-6 Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.
Here are two more..
I Cor. 1:7-9 Just think—you don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.

Phil. 1:6 (Amp.) And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
I don't know how many different ways the idea that I have to be independent and do things on my own can sneak into my brain (This time I was meditating on a Bible story!), but I am sure glad when He is faithful to remind me of the truth and it sets me free.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Words and Music by Thomas O. Chilsholm and William Runyan

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not

As Thou has been Thou forever wilt be.

      Great is Thy faithfulness!

      Great is Thy faithfulness!

      Morning by morning new mercies I see.

      All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

      Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

Back to School Christian Concert Night @ Six Flags

Six Flags was packed.  We chose only one ride, Thunder River.  

It was cooler out than it had been, but after an hour waiting in line I started suffering from heat stroke.  I got dizzy, sick, saw bright white lights and all but passed out.  Mike got me to sit down.  I felt a little better.  All I could think was "How am I going to get out of here?"  The line moved up across a bridge and finally to a portion of the fence that I felt like I could climb over. 

I missed the cool water of Thunder River but gulped down two water bottles in no time.

After dinner in the car we got to see Stellar Cart.

We had pretty good seats.

Barlow Girl was great.  They have a heart for modesty, purity, and waiting for the one God has for them.  No recreational dating.  I think that's wise.  Less temptation and heart breaks.

Pillar was Mike's favorite.  He had fun playing with our new camera.

Wild hair.

I sat down for a minute so you could see Princess J.

Our camera has "Night Vision."

Pillar's new song, "For the Love of the Game," plays before Nascar Races and the Football Games.  

It's about enjoying life to the fullest where God has you.

I am glad none of my kids have hair like this but wouldn't mind if it was to help them to reach more for Christ.

The drummer.  We were surprised at how well the pictures turned out for how far away we were and it getting dark and all.

Hotel and Sonny's BBQ

We found a good deal at a really nice hotel in Atlanta.

The elevator is lined in this really pretty wood.. not quite this orange.  The camera's on the wrong setting.

Down to the lobby for bed time snacks.

I told Princess J that she had to be careful not to get too hyper after drinking her mocha latte 

'cause we were going to bed right after watching "The Forbidden Kingdom" (a new Jackie Chan movie).  

She said, "Mommy, I am always hyper."

My mathematician is reading the LOTR series.  He liked the first book best so far.

Please, make sure I don't put my chin up and slouch during photo taking.  This is my effort toward sitting closer to Mike.

We ate lunch at Sonny's BBQ before making our way to Six Flags.  It was pretty good.

We don't have any good, inexpensive BBQ in Montgomery.  :-(

Afternoon Drive to GA

We've made quite a few trips to GA since moving here.

It's nice to be able to explore and visit new places.

It's just the four of us so we took Mike's car.  It's really nice.

Isn't she cute?

This is the hat I always wear out doors.  I love it because it folds up and fit's in my purse.

Mike got XM radio for his birthday.  It's nice not having to worry about loosing stations between towns.  They play some really old Christian songs on The Message radio station mixed in with new ones.  It's funny hearing Phil Keaggy and others again.  

This is pretty much what the view looks like all around AL and GA.  It's beautiful.  Reminds me of the TX hill country.

Youth Band Practice

On a typical Thursday night.

My mathematician is practicing to become my guitarist.

Princess J has to be strong to keep up with the boys.

Who else is going to load all that equipment for them?

I am driving tonight because our Pizza Maker is busy making pizzas.

 How are we going to raise that cash for our next youth trip?

Our faithful drummer.

Princess J plays bass and sings when our Pizza Maker can't make it.

Our Sound Tech.

McWane Take Two

Oops.. I found a few more photos.

Cycling at great heights.

The kids spent quite a while building these race cars.

Electricity.

Make an impression.

Riddle

I have a riddle for you.  

Q: What's the hardest thing about packing for a family reunion?

A: Knowing that you need to be photo ready every moment that you're with your scrapbooking, blogging, camera loving family and that those extra pounds you put on will probably not be photoshopped out.

McWane Science Center

With our US Space and Rocket Center passes we were able to go visit our friends in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago and see the McWane Science Center there.  It was really nice and we had a great time.  

Terri's daughter got to be on the Channel 6 weather live.

Princess J plays a tune.

They had three shadow puppet screens.  The butterflies will land on your shadow.  

Terri's son and my programer came, too but I didn't find any good pictures of them.

I Love Lucy Lunch

One of our favorite things about our new house is Mike's 7 minute commute to work.  He has always wanted to be able to come home for lunch and finally can.  It's nice sharing lunch with your best friend every day.  Most days Mike gets home around 11 for lunch and it just happens that that's when the  "I Love Lucy" show is on.  

What more could I ask for?

The Death of a Camera

Shortly after the last post about my camera, it gave up the ghost.  I pulled the screwdrivers out of hiding and gave it to Mike to see if he could work a miracle.  He was unable to get the problem area open.  When my programmer found out about the operation, he was perplexed at why we hadn't invited him to use his masterful skills.  It's been sitting on his desk in pieces for a couple of weeks now.  Maybe I should have tried e-bay before breaking out the screwdrivers.

After much research my sweet husband picked out this new camera for me.  Happy Birthday to me.  It's pretty cool.  I included a review in the link above.  It's a Sony Cyber Shot H50.  My friend in Birmingham bought one recently and really likes it.  It has some pretty cool features and seems pretty easy to use.  My two favorite features so far are that you can set it to take many shots in a row and you can set it to wait for the person to smile before it shoots.  It's bigger than my old camera (defiantly not pocket sized) but takes better pictures so far.  

  

Bath Tada!

So how do you like it?

I love the hight of the new counter.  It makes my bathroom counter seem so low, though.

I had to add in the decorative mint green tiles to make up for tub being half an inch shorter than my old tub.  Thanks, Dad, for the suggestion.  They match my towels perfectly.

Courtney asked what color floor tiles we used.  We got them at Lowes.

New light fixture, a place to hang our hand towels, and drawer space for the kids.  The new paper holder wasn't the exact one in the set but it cost $10 less and I liked it more.  No bleach products are allowed on the solid surface counter top.  If it gets a stain, you're supposed to sand it out.  I am a little nervous about that.  

Finally enough places to hang the kids' towels.  I used scrapbook paper for the art.

I tiled and painted the hall, too.  It's laminate wood floors were water damaged earlier this year.  Everyone says it looks wider now (in person).  The walls needed repainting.  I used left over paint from the kitchen/music room.  Blank wall to the right is where my family and friends colleges are going after our trip to MoRanch.

Our front entry way is brick.  A lot of the older entry ways here have it.  New tile goes down the hall and laminate wood floor goes into my living room.  We're versatile.

Solitary Confinement

Working in a little bathroom 6 days a week for the last month started to feel like solitary confinement.  

I started looking pretty ragged, too.

I missed learning with the kids in school.  I missed talking to people.  I missed enjoying my nice little clean house which wasn't clean any longer.    

  I was very thankful for my wet saw.  

After a couple of weeks of thinking, "I'll finish by the end of this week."  I finally got my ipod out and sung my heart out while tiling.    

One cool thing about doing your own remodeling is uncovering the history of your house.  I found this wallpaper in one of the moldy walls.    

I loved tiling the floor.  It went faster than anything else.  

This fan was my most valuable tool for survival.

Mike was able to help me get started on the tile one Saturday.

I learned this cool trick on YouTube on how to measure the cuts you need for the edges of the room.  I cut this piece of card board to the size I needed and used it like the YouTube video tool linked above.  

One of the very last things that we had to do was put in the new bath tub fixtures.  Mike started working on it one night after work.  Once we got it partially together, we discovered that we had no cold water.  It looked like we were going to have to tear out the tile to turn on the cold water valve inside the wall.  

It was unthinkable to me.  I was so tired.  I didn't want to add on another 3 or 4 days of work.  I asked for time to think.  Finally about an hour later I had the thought that it would be easier to get at the pluming from the living room wall and patch that wall than to have to retile.  So we measured the distance from the wall to the pluming and found this air conditioner vent.. 

which was really a disguise for an access to the tub plumbing.  Hurray!  I was so relieved.  Especially when we discovered it wasn't the wall valve at all it was different part that needed loosened up.  I would have been so upset.  Thank You, Jesus for the inspired wall idea.