Jesus, We Love You

-fall nature walk in field-

JESUS WE LOVE YOU

Jesus, we love You,
We long to be close to You.
Draw us beside You to bask in Your love.

Let rivers of healing pour o'er our souls.
Break us of sin, make us whiter than snow.

We love the blood of Jesus,
we love His blood that flowed.

Jesus, Great Shepherd,
We long to be led by You.
Into green pastures, where cool waters flow.

Jesus, Great Shepherd, feed now your sheep.
Kept by Your Strong Hand, help us believe.

That your grace will be there tomorrow,
Just as it way today.

Jesus, Protector,
Provider of everything.
Jesus, our lighthouse, our tower of strength.

Don't let us stumble, don't let us stray.
Keep us from falling, keep us in Your ways.

Our keeper never slumbers,
Nor closes His eyes in sleep.

Jesus, we love You,
We long to be close to You.
Draw us beside You to rest in Your arms.

A little translation is needed

-daisies-

Sometimes when I'm babysitting, a little translation is in order. For example, I translate:
"Emily, let's go eat our Grow-la bars NOW." to: I'm hungry. Instead of waiting till we get to the park, lets eat our granola bars now.

Here are some more sentences/questions I've translated recently:

"Wait! Wait! Let's not run, 'cause my throat gets tired." Translation- I'm too tired to run. You might need to carry me soon. Plus, my throat hurts.

"Did Ty Pennington build this park?" Translation- ?????????

"Can I have a Kalkier?" Translation- Can I have a calculator?

"Can dogs eat carrots?" Translation- I don't want to eat my carrots. Can I give 'em to the dog?

irony, irony, irony,

-the bridge-

Please, leap into my memory as I hit the “replay” button of my afternoon with Twinky, Pinky, and Little Linky. (That’s right- I was hanging with the twinnies and their tiny tot of a sister.)
It all started out with a question I was sure I could answer. In fact, I was not only sure of my capability to answer it, I was sure that I was completely right. No one could prove my answer wrong. Or so I thought.
“Emily, are there any crocodiles in this pond?” asked Twinky and Pinky.
I glanced into the cool-looking water, chuckled to myself and answered an affirmative: “No!” I went on to make myself clear. “No, there aren’t ANY crocodiles in this pond. There will never be any crocodiles in this pond.”
I walked two more steps and pulled up short. There, in the water was a crocodile.
A toy one, to be exact, floating directly in front of my face and their wide, surprised eyes. It totally smashed my afore confirmation about “There-will-never-be-crocodiles-in-this-pond-don’t-worry-there-aren’t-crocodiles-here” speech. Just.like.that.
“A CROCODILE!” both girls shrieked at the top of their lungs, their little fingers pointing at it.

How will they ever even trust me again? RIGHT after I say there aren’t ANY CROCODILES HERE THANK-YOU-VERY-MUCH they see one in the very pond I was talking about.

Now THAT’S what I call irony. I even have pictures to document this tale sadly, when I went back the very next day to take a picture of the crocodile, it was no longer there.

- this is the pond where mr. crocky shattered my oh-so-assuring statement-

-where I first saw mr. crocky-

Boardwalk

Breaking free from being indoors, I braced myself, Baby Boy, and Big Sister to embark on an adventure to Beaver’s dam, beneath the boardwalk, beyond the bridge, in the beautiful, balmy fall weather.

Bouncing in a bright yellow stroller with brown hair, beside his brown, bright-eyed, sister, babbling about the big black birds was Baby Boy.
The brood brought along: a book about barnyard animals, a blue blanket, a Barbie Blackberry and berry suckers.
Before long, I become aware that Baby Boy was no longer babbling about “deese dat say: tat tat” but was sound asleep.
We began boarding a bent brick bridge which had beautiful brittle leaves blown onto it.

Beyond the bridge, built by broken branches, beneath the boardwalk, was the Beaver’s dam.

The blissful girl, whose brown hair was blowing in the blustery wind, unbuckled and bounced out of the stroller, her Barbie Blackberry in hand.

“Baby’s still sleeping. Can I have my berry sucker now?” she begged.

A berry sucker and abuncha pictures later, and we were half way across the boardwalk. I briefly paused to behold the beautiful lake which was blinding because of the brilliant beams that were being bestowed upon it by the bright sun.

Big sister and I stopped to breathe in the brisk autumn breeze and take pictures of the beautiful boardwalk by the birds, biting bits of food beside the bank.
By the time Baby began to blink his brown eyes open again, we were boarding the brick bridge, on our way back home.

(All of these pictures were taken with my cell phone. Sorry if the quality of some of 'em are kinda. . . meh.)

Veterans Day

-American Flag, Spring-

Today is Veterans Day.

I want to say thank you to all the people who have given their life serving our country;and thank you to those who are serving our country right now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Whatever happens

-Summer sun-

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness."

Lamentations 3:22

This morning as I got up, I was reminded of this verse when I saw the bright sun rising around blue skies, mist, and the frosty grass. Everyday things happen that I don't understand; things happen that I like, things happen that I LOVE, things happen that I hate, and pleanty of things happen that I don't even know about. Things happen that make me sad, happy, confused, excited, bored, and well, the list could go on and on. The thing is, when all of these things happen, God never changes. He always stays the same. He always is good.

So, this morning as I looked at the sparkling grass and the yellow sun, I prayed something along the lines of: "Lord, whatever happens today, help me to love you the same. Help me to still want to obey and follow you no matter what happens today. Whether something horrible is going to happen today or whether something wonderful is going to happen today, because you are sovereign over everything and all you do is good-even when I don't understand. So whatever happens, help me to love you the same."

I did it:

Definition of "it"- went to Trader Joe's-for the first time. That's right, I had never been there before. *Gasp!* I know. I enjoyed walking around and checking out the things they carry; they have a wide selection of some unique food items. Plus, they had cheep, beautiful flowers! But, I wanna hear from you! What is your favorite thing to get at Trader Joe's?

ps- I thought I'd give you a heads up- I'm working on an alliteration post! It has been faaaaar to long.