• Running a mile-a-minute these days!  Whew!
• But incredibly gorgeous weather.  It’s so nice to sit out back and enjoy it.  Last week was incredibly hot, but this week has been very mild.  Enjoyable.
• I taught my last music theory class at church last night.  That was a lot of fun!  Smart people in there.  (I had adults, high school kids and middle school kids.)
• We are hosting a wedding rehearsal dinner at our home tomorrow evening.
• Nothing like  social festivities to finally encourage one to do the decorating one has been putting off.
• Pictures to come.
• Backyard clean-up commences in mad fashion today.
• This is a last-minute change in venue for the happy couple, and we are very happy to host.
• I’m thinking for future home projects that we need to be inspired by unexpected parties and large events.
• I tend to get motivated and work well under large amounts of pressure like 30 people arriving on my doorstep within a few days time.
• You’d better believe I’ll be sharing photos of those preparations, too.
• And I have some rockin’ Pottery Barn hostess items I got as birthday gifts last year that I can’t wait to pull out!!
• The dinner is a BBQ grill-out.
• Today is Water Day at G’s school.  S and I are donning swimsuits and joining in the festivities!  We are looking forward to it.
• Then we are coming home and working on the backyard.
• Priorities, you know.

Going Nowhere

This week…

• Favorite Blog Post: The Blond Boy and the Bonfire at New Things Every Day  This is a blog written by a dear friend I have known for years.  She, her husband and her children live overseas and she shares the most entertaining stories and interesting cultural tidbits about life in the culture they live in.
• Favorite Kitchen Accessories: So I wandered into anthropologie this weekend and while the clothing (even clearanced) is beyond my comfort level in terms of price, I absolutely fell in love with the kitchen department products.  Oh my stars, take a look at these measuring cups and measuring spoons.  I mean, really.  How much cuter could they get?  (And there are plenty more than just these two designs!)  They even had darling aprons, but I would struggle with not wanting to wear them for their intended purpose because of their cuteness.  Oh, the dilemma!
• 

  Measuring spoons - seriously!

  

  And measuring cups! In all their cuteness!

• Favorite Weirdness: I encountered a young man working at Victoria’s Secret.  This has turned my undergarment and lingerie world upside down.  It’s bad enough shopping for personal items with men wandering around with their girlfriends/wives, but a man working there?  Oh, the embarrassment!  Don’t ask me why this embarrasses me when I can deliver babies in a room full of people.  It just does.  It’s a woman’s world.  We talk about the pretty flower patterns and matching bras and panties.  How do I have casual conversation about this and bra support with a young man checking out my items at the register?  Nope, don’t think so.   Weirdness.  Truly.
• Favorite Movie Freebies: Free Family Film Festival Yes, you read that right!  All summer long, Regal Cinemas hosts free movies for the kiddos on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Free.  Free. Ply them with sugar and popcorn and darkness and stillness for a couple hours then turn them loose in the swimming pool!  That’s what I’m talking about!  Ha!  (read:  secret plan for making your kids sleep soundly at night)
• Favorite Soap:  Stone Street Baths and Body Company.  This is a family-owned homemade soap company.  I have fallen in love with their bar soaps and truthfully my skin has never felt better.  Good stuff.  Smells fabulous, too!  Chris really likes the “Tweed” men’s soap as well.

Got Links?

Psalm 119.

So admit it…do you get nervous, or maybe worried about being bored, at the thought of reading through Psalm 119?  If you are

Thorncrown Chapel, near Eureka Springs, Arkansas where we spent our honeymoon. One of the most amazing chapels I have ever seen in my life. It was so beautiful and peaceful.

unfamiliar, this is the Psalm also known as the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses.  This chapter is all about God’s word – with it in our lives.  Or without it.

I’ll admit it.  It made me go cross-eyed once I got past verse ten or twenty, it seemed to be all the same.  Yes, yes, I get it.  Read God’s Word.  Obey God’s Word.  Check.  Double-check.  Next…

Then a dear friend challenged me to read Psalm 119 slowly and carefully and write out a list of the benefits of being in God’s word.  Intriguing.  Challenging.  And a LIST.  Now you’re speaking my language. I love lists.  So I started off on my adventure and was more, much more, pleasantly surprised than I thought would be.

I was floored.  I was changed.  My faith was reawakened from a restless nap and renewed.

Psalm 119 is a chapter rich with personal assurance and promises for every, and I mean every, situation in our lives.  It is also filled with praise and thanksgiving for God and His word.   What a fantastic combination!

I love to read through and/or handwrite my list periodically because the simple act of doing so is such a great reminder of all that I learned, not to mention a huge encouragement.  I’m not going to post my whole list because it is something very personal to me and you should do your own list (if you feel you should, of course).  But here’s how I started mine.

I read the following passage:

^1[a] Blessed are those whose^(A) way is blameless,
who^(B) walk in the law of the LORD!
²Blessed are those who^(C) keep his^(D) testimonies,
who^(E) seek him with their whole heart,
³who also^(F) do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
⁴You have commanded your^(G) precepts
to be kept diligently.
⁵Oh that my ways may^(H) be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
^6(I) Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
⁷I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn^(J) your righteous rules.^[b]
8I will keep your statutes;
^(K) do not utterly forsake me!

⁹How can^(L) a young man keep his way pure?

By guarding it according to your word.
^10(M) With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not^(N) wander from your commandments!
¹¹I have^(O) stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.

My beginning of my list, derived from those verses.

1.   I will be blessed, joyful, blameless, undefiled when I walk in the way of the Lord according to His word.

2.  I will be blessed by seeking Him with my whole heart and keeping His statutes.

3.  I will be unashamed.

4.  I will praise Him as I learn His ways.

5.  I will obey Him.

6.  I can keep my way pure by living according to Your word.

7.  Hiding Your word in my heart will help me to not sin against you.

God Stuff, God of My Story

Katherine Stone at Postpartum Progress is an amazing advocate for women and families affected by postpartum mood disorders – I cannot even begin to to list her accomplishments and the progress she has made through blog and personal work.  If you are hurting from a postpartum mood disorder, then please check out her site as well as Out of the Valley Ministries.  She is the kindest lady (hoping to meet her in person one day!) and sweetest soul.

Last year, she hosted the First Annual Mother’s Day Rally for Mom’s Mental Health where she asked 24 bloggers/authors to write a letter addressed to new and/or hurting moms and she posted one on the hour every hour on Mother’s Day.  It was a resounding success and the letters for incredible. I was hugely honored to be one of those letter writers and I was incredibly blessed to have participated, and, heck, even been included among such big names!

This year she has another amazing list of authors put together for the Second Annual Mother’s Day Rally for Mom’s Mental Health at Postpartum Progress and wow, I can’t wait to pop in and read these letters!  Please do check it out.  You will be so blessed.  If you are a mom, a mom with a new baby, a hurting mom, just need some plain old encouragement in the parenting arena or want to know how to encourage someone else then head on over.  You won’t regret it.

Go here on Mother’s Day:  Postpartum Progress

God bless,

Tara

God's PPD Ministry

One of my late Christmas presents from Chris this year as the Barnes & Noble nook, a rival reader to Amazon’s Kindle.  I must say that I love my nook, and it keeps getting better!  Each new software update, particularly the latest, has brought fun goodies.

So why did Chris end up choosing the nook?  After he compared it to the Amazon and the Sony Reader, he ultimately choose the nook for several reasons:

• A space to add a memory card if you want to hold even more books.  This may or may not be a moot point as your entire library is stored online as well.
• The nook also has wifi capabilities, with instant access and more features when you inside a BN store.
• Over a 1,000,000 books.  At the time, more books were available at BN than at Amazon.  I am unsure if that is still true but I think it is.  I believe Sony’s books can be read on the nook as well.
• I can read e-books checked at my local library on the nook, not on the Kindle.
• Chris liked that the nook used Android software.  This means nothing to me, but it was pretty cool to Chris, my software engineer hubby.
• Navigation is handled via a touchscreen (personal preference).

My nook finally arrived the first week of February and I am thrilled with it!  I was one of the original scoffers of e-reader technology.  I thought I would miss the feel of a book in my hand and turning the pages, but no, I can’t say that I do.  I reads like a book, feels like the weight of a book, and you can swipe the touchscreen with your finger with the same motion as turning a page – and your page turns.  It’s pretty great picking up one book knowing you have just about your entire library with you at one time!

I am able to upload my own docs and pdf files to read as I wish.  Formatting may not be perfect, but it works for me.  I can also upload .jpgs to use as screensavers – I have thoroughly enjoyed this.  Opening the cover I purchased for my nook and seeing rotating pics of my family.  (I honestly had no idea if this is a feature on the Kindle or Sony products).  I can also adjust the font size to any size I’d like – nice!

The latest software update included two games:  Sudoku (yes!) and Chess.  It also included (get this!) a web browser!  Sweet, huh?  You have enable a wifi connection and be connected wirelessly, and it does work, albeit a little slow.  This latest update also made page turns a little faster as well as some other nice minor details.

Sure, sure…every rare now and then it freezes and I have to power it down and back up and then, but that happens to any tech product I own.  I don’t see it as a major issue.

Cons.  Yes, there a couple of downsides.  Any book with charts, I am not able to increase the size of the charts to a readable size (one book had this issue that I know of).  Hopefully this gets improved upon.  Also, there is a notes, highlights, and bookmarks feature.  I love marking up non-fiction books with notes and highlights, however, doing this on the nook is a bit cumbersome.  I can go much, much faster with a paper version so I don’t usually make the effort to highlight unless it’s really, really worth it.  Hopefully this improves as well.

A pro or a con, depending upon your budget and perspective:  it was way too easy to buy books!  You can download free samples to preview if you’d like, but either way all you tap is “buy” then “ok” and you have your book in seconds!  Seconds!  Truly amazing.  Just stay within reach of a cellular tower and you have a gazillion books at your fingertips.  Amazing.

A book lovers dream.

And I highly recommend a handy-dandy cover no matter which reader you choose.  It’s just cuteness!  I chose one with a picture frame on the front so I could put in a nice pic of my gorgeous family for me to look at everyday.

Going Nowhere