Another Collection

Collections. Why do people collect things? Does anyone really need 50 Precious Moments figures? What about those eggs? What do you do with them? And spoons. WHY?

Do you have any collections? You probably do. Doesn't everyone collect something???

I LOVE things with pineapples on them. I started liking pineapples in 2002 when Mike's grandma died. She was my absolute most favorite person in the whole Murphy family. I admired her love for the Lord. She was active in her church and was a leader in the women's mission thing at her church- the name of the group has slipped my mind at this moment. She made cakes!! She loved people. She made me laugh. (She collected a few Precious Moments.) She was NORMAL, down-to-earth, and I felt like she "grew up in my neighborhood." She collected pineapples. When Mike's grandpa died in 2004 we went through the house and we were allowed to take something. I took a picture of a pineapple that was hanging in the kitchen. Pineapples remind me of Mamaw and her love- love for the Lord and love for people. Also, pineapples stand for hospitality and I love being a hostess.

I also love Asian stuff as I blogged about before. When did this love start?? Not sure. I had a few Asian boyfriends in high school so that may be when it started. But I don't think it got to be an obsession until about 2003 when I started watching Korean dramas on AZN. This is a fairly new love so I haven't had a chance to get out of control with collecting yet.

I could list a few other things I love to collect but I want to get to the point of this entry before I fall asleep.

My middle child is a collector. At first he collected plastic fruit.

(uh oh... falling asleep. finishing the blog in the morning.)

Okay, morning now... Blake collected fruit. I had bought this huge Wiggles backpack at the Thrift Store and it was stuffed with fruit. This pic has other foods in it but FRUIT and veggies was his obsession. He would sleep with the oranges. It was crazy. This was when he was age 4. That year for Christmas BOTH of his grandmas got him POMEGRANITES. lol He was so excited. I actually have him on video when he opened up one of them and he was jumping up and down screaming.

During the fruit obsession I bought Blake a little notebook that had raspberries on the front. It became his next obsession.

Blake started taping candy wrappers on each page... sometimes doubling them up so they'd fit.

 

Once the notebook was filled up he started a new collection. (He still gives me wrappers to tape into the notebook.)

Every time I opened a new milk I threw the little plastic ring onto the floor for the cats to play with. Blake decided he wanted to collect them.

 

At last count he had 364 of them. And the collection continues. We take donations.

The milk ring collection is still going on but a new collection has started. Blake now collects the Wednesday night prayer bulletins.

 

I am not kidding you... as I was writing this entry Blake asked me for some tape so he could tape last nights bulletin to the rest of the collection. (Blake goes through a lot of tape. I'll take donations on that too!!!! ha.)

Why does Blake collect things? Is this weird? On a few occasions I've thought maybe this was some sort of illness. For now though we will enjoy the oddness of each collection and just go with it. Blake has always been entertaining. From the moment he was born with a hole in his lung and spent days in the PICU to low muscle tone issues and having to have PT, OT, & Speech therapy. And now as a 6-year-old. I love that boy. :)

Taming the Tongue

I am the special speaker for Sparks tonight at Awana. I knew what my visual aids were going to be and I knew my scripture but I felt like I needed something more for the kids. After cleaning toilets, mopping floors, homeschooling, lunch, and spending my OWN time in God's word I decided to get online and search for some sort of story or something.

I happened upon this blog from a total stranger and it spoke a lot to me. Thought I'd share with you... CLICK HERE!!

Turn! Turn! Turn!

I stumbled upon this earlier while looking at Tammy Trent's website. Very encouraging so I thought I'd copy and paste it right here.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

June 9, 2010

The challenge of “moving on” from our past and into our future is much easier said than done, especially when soo much is undefined and at times can be far from a secure feeling in our lives. But what most of us can probably say about “moving on” is that we KNOW it’s something that will be good for us, better for us and something that God is calling us to. A place where the sun is shining a little brighter and the air is more lovely to breathe.

But there is far more to moving on than just getting out of bed every morning and hoping for the best as we put one foot in front of the other. Do you ever find yourself walking over to the mirror, still with sleepy eyes and wonderful morning breath, (mine smells like roses-haha) saying back at yourself, “God where are you today? Will you show up?”. I know I have! And Ohhhh yes, God will ALWAYS show up, but I believe He requires us to do a little work ourselves. Like actively making new plans, speaking over our lives as mighty overcomers, taking on our future with courage and redefining what really needs to be redefined around us. At the end of the day it ultimately means that we need to understand and accept that things have changed in ours lives and now DO something about it. Ecclesiastes 3:1 – To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

So here’s my kick in the pants and reminder to all of us. Turn! Turn! Turn! Moving on is a process, so stop waiting for what you wished had happened different. It is finished. It is time. The wait is over. So jump in and start that process today. God has given and placed in you GREAT ideas, hopes, solutions and dreams for your life. Pray for courage and wisdom to step up and step out and then begin to take back your life and allow God to fulfill the dream He birthed in you. But you cannot do it alone. God is your helper and as the greatest leader in your life you have NO reason to be afraid anymore, especially of man or unGodly voices in your life. Listen to the Holy Spirit, His voice brings peace. Trust the word of God and let it light your pathway.

Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. I John 4:4

Knots

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with all things ASIAN! Anything that has an oriental feel to it catches my eye. If I was able to I'd decorate every room in the house asian. :) I love PUCCA- the Korean cartoon about a chinese girl. I love MANEKI NEKOs... asian cats (two of my faves in one.) I LOVE Korean dramas & soundtracks. I LOVE jade. I LOVE California Rolls and KIMCHI. I love cranes. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the asian culture.

A few weeks ago I was at Hobby Lobby picking up supplies for something and I happened upon this great book- Chinese Knots for Beaded Jewelry. It cost $20 so I passed it up. I came home and got online immediately and thankfully the library had it for FREE! :) I checked the book out a few weeks ago and finally got some cork board. Today I had a chance to sit down for an hour and make a few chinese knots. Here are a few pics. Hoping to make some jewelry with my new skills this weekend.

First Day of School 2010

School started out rough this year. I added my fourth child to the mix. That in itself is enough to make me want to pull my hair out. But figure in a VERY mobile 1-year-old and anyone would go nuts. lol

I had all the school books on the table the night before and all the pages were marked. I was actually looking forward to starting since the kids were so excited. Once we were all sitting at the table though it was very chaotic. Alison needed my undivided attention and Chase wanted to sit on the chairs WITH someone. After about 20 minutes I finally gated Chase in his room and he fell asleep.

Every day after the first has been great... with the first complaining coming yesterday from Abigail when she realized we were ONLY doing Ohio History this year and not our regular history curriculum.

Here are our traditional pics from our first day:

 Abigail- 5th Grade

Ethan- 3rd Grade

Blake- 2nd Grade

Alison- Kindergarten

Chase- Class Animal

And of course some pics of them hard at work:

I love my children and am so thankful the Lord has allowed me to stay home and teach them. :)

Covered Bridge

Have you ever noticed that when it rains it pours? One thing goes wrong and soon everything else seems to be falling to pieces. Issues that would be minor alone seem a million times worse when they are added to other issues. Add one more problem on top of 10 problems and you feel like you are about to fall over the edge.

My life has been like this lately. When listing out my issues they really don't seem so bad but some days I feel so exhausted from fighting the same battles over and over again that I just want to lock myself in a room and sleep for a month of Sundays. I won't go into detail about what is going on since that's not really the point of this blog post. Just wanted to share that I've been overwhelmed lately. Feeling down in the dumps. And every time I start to feel better something else happens to knock me right back down again. It really does get exhausting.

So this weekend I found myself right in the middle of the blahs. I woke up Labor Day morning and even though nothing had gone wrong yet that day my mood was just blah. Thankfully we had plans and I was unable to sit at home and dwell on things. I wasn't really in the mood to go anywhere but we had already committed so we loaded up a bunch of stuff and the five kids and off we went.

The day was uneventful. Just your basic relaxing, hanging with family, cooking on the grill, fishing & riding bikes, lots of bandaids & kisses kind of day. After we had exhausted every possible activity and it was early evening we decided to load up and head home. Mike had promised on the way home that he would stop by the old train station building AND the old covered bridge so I could take a few pics. I've wanted to stop for years but we have always either been in a hurry to get somewhere OR it's been super late (and dark) and we just wanted to get home.

The temperature was beautiful. We pulled off the road near the covered bridge and I got out and snapped several shots . Mike & the kids were in the van laughing at me but I didn't care cause I somehow felt connected to the covered bridge. When Mike and I were first married we used to pass by the bridge on occasion and Mike, having forgotten that he already told me before, proceeded to tell me that when his grandparents first moved to Alexandria the bridge was being moved from it's original location and they almost purchased it to be placed on their property. Mike & I have now passed by that bridge for more than a decade and each time I tease him about telling me the story a million times.

Anyway, I got back in the van and we started to pull off when I realized there was another pretty shot from the other end. I screamed for Mike to stop, I put down my window, and I took a few more pics. As we were looking at the bridge, and waiting for one of the kids to buckle up, we noticed a sign. There were a few "danger! do not enter!" signs but this sign was different. How in all of these years did we not notice this sign? It was very weathered and you almost couldn't tell that there were any words on it.

I jumped out of the van and walked quickly towards the bridge so I could get a closer look and see what the sign said. I had a hard time reading it from the ground so I was very thankful for the zoom function. I took a few pictures and got back in the van one last time and we drove off.

As we went on our way I turned on the camera, zoomed in on the pic, and read the words aloud to Mike and the kids. Here is what it said:

Can you read it? Just in case... All things save this have changed within our day, beside this quiet road nestled in these joyous hills, you point your modest structure toward the sky, unsought and all unchanged, you give us still some fragrance of your peace as we go by. Built in 1871 by Frank Phillips.

Mike and I discussed the words phrase by phrase trying to get the entire meaning. Immediately my mind thought back to 1871 when the bridge was built. WHO was Frank Phillips? What sort of family did he have? What possessed him to build a bridge? I love thinking about people from the past who I never knew. I would love to know stories of people who actually walked across the bridge or went on a wagon over it. First loves standing on the bridge together. Children playing  nearby. (I'm picturing Little House on the Prairie)

Wrapping it up since this blog post is super long and I'm about to fall asleep... Imagining myself on this covered bridge in the middle of the quiet of nature suddenly brought peace to my soul. The world is constantly changing and there is so much ugliness. But the Lord gives us His creation to enjoy and HE never changes. The simplicity of a bridge, trees, and a cool breeze really brought things into perspective for me at that moment. My issues might seem overwhelming but HE is the same yesterday, today, and forever and is with me. My life is but a moment- here today and gone tomorrow. So thankful for that sign and for the way my entire day was orchestrated so that we would be there at just that moment.

Simple Woman's Daybook

Monday, September 6, 2010

Outside my window... nice, cool evening.

I am thinking... about the busy week ahead

I am thankful for ... the simple and unexpected ways that the Lord speaks to us

From the learning rooms... The planner is filled out (for 3 weeks). Pages are marked. Pencils are sharpened. The calendar is updated. Tomorrow is our first day of school. :)

From the kitchen... cake, cake, & cake. Did I mention cake?? (two down, two more to go.)

I am wearing... white pj pants with pink flowers & a white v-neck tee.

I am creating... a cocker spaniel webkinz cake & a camo cake.

I am going... to relax, be patient, & not overwork everyone like I normally do at the beginning of a school year.

I am reading... almost done with a book!! Been reading Sunrise F O R E V E R!!! Can't wait to return it to the library. lol

I am hoping... everyone (mostly Alison) cooperates our first day of school, tries their best, and has a good time.

I am hearing... a song from Jumong (seh songee, nal orah hah neh) on my youtube playlist.

One of my favorite things... Old architecture.

Praying for... several different friends who have spoken & unspoken requests. Seems like so many of my friends are dealing with difficult issues. Also praying for myself- that I would be patient with the kids, that I would make good use of my time, and that I would be Q U I E T when in an argument with Mike.

A Lyric or Two...

You're Not Shaken- Phil Stacey (video following lyrics)

I am sinking in a river that is raging.

I am drowning will I ever rise to breathe again.

I wanna know why?

I just wanna understand.

Will I ever know why?

How could this be from your hand?

When every little thing that I had dreamed would be just slips away like water through my hands.

And when it seems the walls of my believe are crashing down like they're made of sand

I won't let go of you now because I know

You're not shaken.

I am trembling in the darkness of my own fears.

All the questions with no answers still grip me while I'm here.

And I may never know why?

No I may not understand.

But I will lift up my eyes

And trust this is your plan.

When every little thing that I had dreamed would be just slips away like water through my hands.

And when it seems the walls of my believe are crashing down like they're made of sand

I won't let go of you now because I know

You're not shaken.

And when I am in the valley

of the shadow of death

You're not shaken.

You're not shaken.

You're right here beside me.

And you have never left.

You're not shaken.

When every little thing that I had dreamed would be just slips away like water through my hands.

And when it seems the walls of my believe are crashing down like they're made of sand

I won't let go of you now because I know

You're not shaken.

No, You're not shaken.

You're not shaken.

Oh You're not shaken.

A verse to share... A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.”
Proverbs 31:10

A few plans for the rest of the week... school, deliver cake, school, prayer group, choir practice, school, surgeon shoulder check-up, cake, school, cake, co-op mom's night/info meeting,

Come on now... you know you want to do this too!!!

http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/