Majesty & Manicures

So the other day I was doing devotions and talking with God and noticed one of my nails needed filing. I reached for a nearby file, but felt somewhat conspicuous filing while I was praying. It seemed disrespectful (although if I had been filing first and suddenly felt the urge to pray, I'm sure it would have been just fine to continue filing and begin praying).

The Bible describes God/Jesus as our father, brother, friend, groom, rescuer and king. Now I don't know about you, but the way I show love to my parents, siblings, friends, husband and king (president?) are vastly different from each other! When I'm with my friends, I get a cup of coffee and we do our nails together; not so if I were to visit with the President. So is doing my nails while I pray a dishonor to God my king, or is it totally acceptable as something that close friends do together? And pouring out my love with passionate words is right when directed to God my lover, but to God my father or Jesus my brother? Hmmm.

The best way I can think to understand it is that God is GOD, and the relationship we have with Him is impossible for us to fully grasp, so He uses examples of ways He is like a father, like a brother, like a friend, like a lover, like a king, when really He is so much more than any of those. I think He gave us so many different examples because He wants our love in every way it can possibly manifest itself -- we should love him in every way there is to love. Does that make sense, or am I off base?

Even so, I still wonder about filing my nails while praying. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

My Four Favorite Boys

A trip to the park yielded several hours of fun in the sun and several great pics of the boys all together...


This picture says so much about their personalities.
Isaac & Luke: we're happy and at peace with the world.
Levi & Elijah: we're going to conquer the world!



I'm not sure who this belonged to, but there was no one around to shoo the boys off of it, so I snapped a quick picture. No, I didn't let them climb up onto the seat, but I'm sure they would have loved to!



I'm so glad it's finally spring so the boys can do this OUTSIDE! I was getting a little tired of it happening in the house.

Cool Multiplication Video Game

I came across this multiplication video game called "Timez Attack" via a math blog I follow. There's a free-bee version and a paid version. I've only seen the free one but it's cool! Your character has to escape the dungeon by opening doors and defeating the ogre behind each one. The only way to defeat him is to answer multiplication problems -- if you answer too slowly or incorrectly, he gains strength; if you answer correctly he loses strength until eventually he keels over and you can steal his key to open the next door. Isaac thought it was very cool! This is a high-quality game -- excellent 3D graphics. Anyone familiar with Bugdom? It looks that good. Here's the link for those who may want to download it.

http://www.bigbrainz.com/

Yard News

Spring has finally arrived! After a very long, cold winter we finally welcomed five days of temps in the 50s and even 60s. There is only one small patch of icy snow left in the yard, and even the mud is beginning to firm up. I anticipate that last snow spot will melt tomorrow -- only 161 days since it arrived last November.

I did a quick yard walk this evening and saw many beautiful, wonderful, amazing and long-overdue signs of life -- the irises are poking new spears through the dirt, new growth is visible on the strawberry plants, one green leaf is emerging from the chrysanthemum, fresh bright hollyhock and four-o'clock leaves are showing and the lilacs foretell a bushy summer (hopefully with blossoms too!). I was also encouraged to see that the lower stems on my rose bushes still bear a hint of green (most of the branches are black -- frozen to death), and that the poor mini evergreens that look so terribly brown are budding as well.

In other exciting yard news, Wade and I (but mostly Wade) put the lattice up on the arbor we (but mostly Wade) built last summer. Now it's ready for climbers -- clematis, raspberries and some unnamed wild thing a neighbor offered to give me cuttings from.




This is such a happy time of year!

And I Quote...

Isaac: "Mom, I really appreciate all the time you spend with me, but I would appreciate it even more if you would roller blade with me."

How could I say no to a request like that? So OF COURSE we roller bladed in the basement for half an hour before breakfast :)

Juice or Wine?

Tonight our church had a Communion service, which was basically a Good Friday service but without a full-fledged sermon (just a mini one -- Pastor Brad can't get up there and not do SOMETHING). Before passing the juice/wine, Pastor Brad alerted us to the fact that the cups on the inside of the tray were wine and those on the outside were grape juice, so each participant could choose which to partake of. As the cups approached I thought about the options, and whether there was any benefit to choosing one over the other. I really couldn't think of any reason why one would be superior, although I felt like I should have some sort of conviction on the issue. Ours is a small church so I didn't have long to ponder it, and either my cup was misplaced or Pastor Brad got his juice and wine sections mixed up in the announcement because what I got was not what I expected -- so all that brief pondering was for naught. But it made me wonder if anyone out there has a decent argument for either juice or wine or if it even matters in the least. Thoughts?

... and counting

Yesterday marked five months that we've had snow on the ground in our yard. Today is day 152.

Yeah, yeah, I'll post something more interesting soon.