272/365

blessings today:
early prayer,
Love of every love the best,
homemade fried rice,
birthday Skype-ing,
first soccer game of the season (another season!),
camera in hand,
facetime with my college guy.

271/365

Nothing like a wedding to remind an old couple about being in love...

270/365

giving raw a try

(ok- for one night...)
:-)

269/365

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, 
and your right hand shall hold me.
- Psalm 139:7-10

268/365

in upstate New York, it was ice cream.
in Hawaii, it was sushi.
in Washington, it was lattes.
in south Texas, it is tacos.
Gas station food.

267/365

The Hairy Dog by Herbert Asquith

My dog's so furry I've not seen
His face for years and years;
His eyes are buried out of sight,
I only guess his ears.

When people ask me for his breed,
I do not know or care;
He has the beauty of them all
Hidden beneath his hair.

(from Favorite Poems Old and New, selected by Helen Ferris, 1957)

266/365

Every time your name comes up in my prayers, I say, “Oh, thank you, God!” I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the Master Jesus, which brims over to other believers. And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of it. Friend, you have no idea how good your love makes me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow believers.
- Philemon 1:4 (The Message)

265/365

To begin Sunday school this morning, we sang:

Today on weary nations
The heav’nly manna falls;
To holy convocations
The silver trumpet calls,
Where gospel light is glowing
With pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing,
With soul-refreshing streams.
- O Day of Rest and Gladness (verse 4)

And so as I gathered with others for worship in my local church today, 
to study the Bible,
to sing praises, 
to pray out loud, 
to welcome strangers through our doors without any cause for concern, 
I thought of other believers, in other places, who don't know such freedoms-

At least 78 killed following Sunday worship at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan;
6 Christians killed, more than 30 missing after September 5 attack on Maaloula, Syria;
A member of the Afghanistan parliament says Christians "need to be executed." ; and
"Persecution (is) at unprecedented levels" throughout the world.

I take a deep breath, and remember Hebrews 11 and "what more can I say" except
"I have overcome the world."

264/365

yes, I live in south Texas.
yes, the flowers are fake.

but hey, I'm traveling north in October. some leaves might be coming home with me.

263/365

3 gifts today:
1. friends who come beside and point to Christ and speak truth and laugh heartily;

2. a cup of coffee and abundantly generous free books and encouragement to press on;

3. girls who love and laugh and sing and shout and humble me to the very core.

(all this, and 99 cent mini-sundaes too.)

262/365

He works on us in all sorts of ways. But above all, He works on us through each other.
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (in Beyond Duct Tape)

261/365

God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life. That is why I say it is our experiences that transform us if we are willing to experience our experiences all the way through.
- Richard Rohr in Beyond Duct Tape

260/365

good-bye Ingrid.

259/365

I'm pretty sure the drought is over.

258/365

The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness.
- John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

I am utterly humbled that one of the most certain signs of sanctification in my life is desire for worship and that He gives really wonderful moments of joy when I least expect them.

257/365

the meal I can almost make with my eyes closed.

256/365

one of the things I love most about homeschooling- a family event where little girls dance with older ones and big boys hoist little ones on their shoulders.

255/365

one sip carries me back to childhood,
and my grandma,
and the blender on the tile counter
in a yellow kitchen with a formica table,
and adding powdered milk to make it creamier.

254/365

Crafty, in a creative, not deceptive or shrewd, sort of way.

253/365

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen for the morning,
    more than watchmen for the morning.
- Psalm 130:5-6 (ESV)

252/365

It wasn't that many years ago that a stop at QT for slurpees could pretty much solve any problem.
Frappucinos don't solve problems. But every once in a while, they take our focus off them for a bit.

251/365

signs of fall where I live...

250/365

Old woman in the shoe,
reading books to kids out on the grass.
Not so long ago...
:-)

(mural in the Children's Area at the Harlingen Public Library)

249/365

Empty streets.
Full parking lots.
Bright lights.
Crowded stadium.
School colors.
Big bands.
Beating drums.
Cheerleaders.
Waving flags.
GO CARDS!
High school football.
Friday night in Texas.

248/365

Right in the middle of practice, they called, and we will have a real gym to practice in!
Rejoicing, and thankful!

247/365

All things are from God; and above all, reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. They are good in themselves; and we must not altogether forget their origin even in their perversion.

- G.K. Chesterton in The Dagger with Wings

246/365

The Tuesday routine still needs some fine-tuning...

245/365

The greatest danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim to high and falling short; but in setting our aim to low and hitting our mark.
- Michelangelo

(taken at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art sculpture garden)

244/365

"... Sunday driver, yeah..."

"and other mind numbing horrors"

My high school junior is reading The Road from Home as part of her 20th Century World History studies this week. The following are the teacher's introductory comments on the book-

"...why spend two weeks reading about the Armenian extermination?

I think the answer comes before the Author's Note, in the front pages. Read the quote by Talaat Pasha, that orders the Armenians all be killed, "however criminal the measures taken may be."

And then, the chilling statement by Hitler, ordering all Poles killed: "After all, who remembers today the extermination of the Armenians?"

Hitler uses as his justification for genocide the lack of memory of history!

May this quote spur you on to pray for events in our world today, whether the genocide in Sudan, the horrific conditions in North Korea, or whatever other mind-numbing horrors are taking place."

Once again, I'm so thankful for the rock solid curriculum Sonlight provides and how it continues to bless our family, even as we begin our 14th year of using it.
And, I'm praying for Syria (click on the link to read an in-the-streets view of the situation in Aleppo, Syria).