Preparing for Winter?

Adam helped our neighbor today to "process" some of his felled lumber. They cut and hauled for hours. This is what Adam brought home. (Note the lovely tulips.)
And all these pieces were just BRANCHES and tops, of the trees. The trunks themselves our neighbor will donate to a charity that distributes firewood to the needy.
Just had to include this pic of Julia, dashing away from the camera. She looks like a little fairy!
Here's my bleeding heart bush, just starting to bloom out this year. I'm always entranced by this plant and its strange blossoms, like a string of teardrops.
Our weather has been HOT, very hot. It is supposed to break here in the East, on Thursday - I'm so glad!

Watching the Neighbors

There's just about NOTHING more entertaining than watching your neighbors do a big project, right? On Saturday, our nextdoor neighbor had the tree-man in, and he took down 4 HUGE trees, 100 foot tall, straight poplars. Here's my grainy photo of the 1st tree and its little orange occupant:
It was shocking to watch him gambol up the trunk with just his spiky boots and a chain. Then they passed the chainsaw up to him, via the chain.
This is a gray-headed older gentleman. He settled in, used the chainsaw to top out the tree (which fell with a thundering crash into the hillside), and descended.
From our patio, we could see it all. It was quite exciting!

"I believe in the resurrection of the body..."

This is a bold assertion. How many of you live each day like you believe in the resurrection of YOUR body? Not a different body -- a different person, different eyes or hair or fingers or voice. YOU. Do you believe you will BE YOU, for eternity, in that very flesh, bone and skin you now wear?

People are confused on this. Have you ever heard a friend ponder, "I wonder if I'll be myself in heaven?" or "I wonder if I'll be a different race?" or "I wonder if I will still be able to run fast/ sing beautifully/sew French knots ... in heaven?" Or the worst EVER: "I wonder if I'll be an angel?" That's rather like asking if you will be a rhinoceros. We won't be changing to another species, thankfully.

For a few days each year, we pound home the resurrection of Christ's body. But let me ask you, Why was it SO important for Jesus to come back to life in his old body, in the very same body in which he was crucified? That's why the nail marks and sword wound were so important; they proved to the disciples that this wasn't Jesus in some new body, or some imposter, cloaked in a familiar face. In those early days, the wounds proved his identity as the crucified Messiah.

But for us, they tell of a bigger truth. Jesus is the "first born among many brethren," the "first born from the dead." Jesus shows us what a resurrected human looks like, acts like. Paul tells us we participate in his death, and in his resurrection. That means that what happened to his body, will happen to our body. Could God the Father have given him a brand new body, one that LOOKED like the old one, but was really new? Could the old, tired, wounded body have been left in that tomb? I suppose -- but God didn't do that.

Because He's a redeeming God. He doesn't give up on the old. He uses it again. He uses us again.

What are glorified bodies like? They are like Jesus's body after his resurrection. They have new, amazing abilities (I believe), that they didn't have before. But essentially, they are the same bodies. It's important that we think of the dead this way, because we must realize that the dead -- including us when we are dead -- are HUMANS. We remain what God created us first to be.

Happy Easter!

I've had a great weekend because Philip is home from college, and I have all my little chickens together in one roost. I know that the times this will be true will diminish as the years go by, so I'm gonna enjoy it today!! I took some photos of them while they were all dressed up:
Julia is not fond of having her picture taken. Julia's dress was worn by Anna for a number of years, and this will be Julia's last. Anna's dress is one I wore in high school to some type of musical performance, I think. I have a picture of myself, wearing this dress, sitting at the piano at Provine Chapel, Mississippi College. I have no idea why I was there!
Anna insisted on a picture with Philip. I know he looks disgruntled here, but actually the sun was just in his eyes. She loves her big brother :)
A pretty picture of a pretty girl. Anna will be 18 this month.
A very goofy boy who is full of life. (except when he's asleep, which is fairly often. Why are teenage boys so SLEEPY all the time?) It's antics like this that got him that nice green cast.
I gave the boys haircuts yesterday. They were both SO shaggy. I couldn't get a shot with both of them making a normal face -- figures :)

Gastonia

Adam and I traveled over to Gastonia on Thursday with a group from our church.
We went to see "Resurrection Trail" at 1st ARP church there. It was really good. We ate at Jackson's Restaurant afterward. We love our dear church friends -- they are so loving, and so much fun.

The Long Hair Generation(s)

I am such a happy mama because my college boy is home!! He's had a really happy year at college. One problem? He hasn't had a hair cut in, um, well, MONTHS!! I think MAYBE it was sometime in the middle of last fall, but it might have been summer.

You can imagine.

Actually, all 3 males in the house were in need of haircuts. I decided to get a "before" shot. They spent a few seconds mussing their hair, to make it as BIG as possible:
Aren't they a riot? We are truly a big hair family. Philip's bushes out on the sides. Peter's grows in a huge wad over his forehead. Adam gets BIG TV Preacher Hair. His hair I do try to keep decent-looking, since he has to be in the pulpit on Sundays.
Well, I got the two boys trimmed. Not huge cuts, mind you, just a good trim. Adam will have to wait till tomorrow. Maybe I'll get an "after" shot then.

When we forget

I've had a busy week. I was walking around the kitchen on Tuesday morning, about to make a Julia Child omelette, when the phone rang. I heard Adam say into the receiver, "This morning? Really?" And I instantly knew I'd forgotten something.

Somewhere I should be on a school morning....

Standardized testing! Eek! A whole room full of homeschooling moms and kids were waiting for us; I was already late, I knew. Here I stood in my bathrobe, toast in hand, butter dribbling down my arm. Hurry, kids! Brush your teeth! I apologized to my friend on the phone as I dashed for the bedroom.

(The testing was on the last two days of one month, and the first day of the next month. My brain had somehow translated that to: the last 2 days of one week and the first day of the next week. This is the same brain that cannot remember simple words.)

We quickly shifted our schedule around, did 3 great days of testing, and tomorrow we'll be right back to normal.

But the feeling when you realize you've forgotten something important, that people already are waiting on a Late You, when you have to throw yourself together in 2 minutes instead of 30? The ground shifts slightly and time does that weird warpy thing.

And you find out you're more flexible than you thought you were.

Maybe that's one thing I love about homeschooling. This week, we unexpectedly threw 3 days of out-of-the-house testing into our school, without missing a beat. That's flexibility, perhaps homeschooling's best asset.