Untitled Hymn

This is a beautiful song we sang during our worship service on Sunday. I thought I'd share it with y'all...

Untitled Hymn

by Chris Rice

Weak and wounded sinner

Lost and left to die

O, raise your head, for love is passing by

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted

And carried far away

And precious blood has washed away the stain, so

Sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby

Don't be afraid to crawl

And remember when you walk

Sometimes we fall...so

Fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely

And steep and filled with pain

So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then

Cry to Jesus

Cry to Jesus

Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over

And music fills the night

And when you can't contain your joy inside, then

Dance for Jesus

Dance for Jesus

Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat

Kiss the world goodbye

Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and

Fly to Jesus

Fly to Jesus

Fly to Jesus and live!

Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

This photo was taken by Robert

Lyrics to Untitled Hymn were found here.

Haven't heard the song? Check it out here on YouTube.

~~~~~

I currently have TWO giveaways going on:
Click here and leave a comment to enter for a chance to win 100 FREE custom postcards! This giveaway ends on October 28, 2009, at 10:00 p.m.
Click here and leave a comment to enter for a chance to win 250 FREE custom stickers or labels! This giveaway ends on October 29, 2009, at 10:00 p.m.

Giveaway: Postcards!

The generous folks at UPrinting.com have another offer for my readers!

UPrinting postcards aren’t just for mailing. These postcards are also invitations, thank you cards, note cards, and more! I have now ordered several products through UPrinting, and I can tell you that the process for uploading images and viewing a (free) proof prior to printing is extremely easy, and the quality is great!



One of my readers will be receiving 100 postcards from UPrinting.com...it might as well be you, right? All you have to do is leave a comment to have a chance to win. And if you subscribe to my blog by email, you can leave an extra comment for another chance to win!

For hosting this giveaway, I will be receiving 100 postcards, too, which I think is awesome! I will most likely use the postcards for our church…perfect timing!

So, how would you use the postcards? With a favorite family photo to send out at Christmas? Business promotion? Getting the word out for an event? Something else? Leave a comment and let me know!

Giveaway Prize Details:

100 Postcards for One Lucky Winner

Size: 4x6
Paper: 14pt Cardstock Gloss
Printing: Full color both sides

Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US (Canadian residents pay shipping and taxes. Offer not available to residents outside of the US and Canada)

A winner will be picked from the comments on October 28th at 10:00 p.m. EST. The prize will be awarded via coupon code which will be emailed to the winner email on November 6th.

P.S. For those of you who know me in real life, I would be glad to help you get a project together if you are interested in any of my giveaways but don’t quite know where to start. I’ll be glad to help in any way--Just let me know!

Also, remember to click here and leave a comment to enter for a chance to win 250 FREE custom stickers or labels! The sticker/label giveaway ends on October 29, 2009, at 10:00 p.m.

Giveaway: Stickers or Labels from Uprinting.com

You might have seen the button on my left sidebar for Uprinting.com, an online printing company. Earlier this year I became a sponsored blogger with Uprinting, which basically means I advertise for them and, in return, they offer some very generous giveaways to my readers as well as me. I think that's pretty cool!

Not only does Uprinting.com print business cards, wall graphics, and a bunch of other things, they also print stickers! This giveaway is for custom printed stickers or labels...250 of them! And it is absolutely free, with free shipping.

One of my readers will be receiving 250 Stickers/Labels from UPrinting.com...it might as well be you, right? All you have to do is leave a comment to have a chance to win. And if you subscribe to my blog by email, you can leave an extra comment for another chance to win!

For hosting this giveaway, I will be receiving 250 stickers, too. How cool is that? I imagine I will use this image on the stickers I will receive, unless my husband has other ideas:

Our new Children's Church logo.

I think this would be great as a sticker, too:

(That's Josiah when he was nearly four years old. Robert took that photo about two weeks before Grace was born...he is still every bit as exuberant as he looks in this shot!)

So, how would you use the stickers? Customized address labels? Favorite photo? Business or church logo? Something else? Leave a comment and let me know!

Giveaway Prize Details
250 Stickers/Labels
Sizes to choose from: 2” x 3.5”, 2” x 4”, or 3” x 3”
Paper: 70 lb Label Matte
Specifications: Full color front, blank back; 4 Business Day printing

This includes FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the USA (Canadian residents need to pay shipping and taxes). This offer is not available to residents outside the US and Canada.

A winner will be picked from the comments on October 29th at 10:00 p.m. EST.

The prize will be awarded via coupon code which will be emailed to the winner email on November 6th.

Pretty cloud pictures

Here are some interesting shots I got a couple of nights ago:

And here is a bonus shot by a guest photographer, my seven year old son Josiah. He took this photo with my digital camera without permission one morning. It's lovely even if you can see his Tonka truck in the grass. ;)

Bedtime

Grace loves bedtime stories, of course, and also loves "reading" to her baby Emily (sometimes as a stalling tactic when it's bedtime).


Last night she fell asleep with a book...again...

Most of time these last few weeks, Grace has been sleeping on a pallet beside my side of the bed. Because really, why sleep in a comfortable bed in your own room when you can sleep on the floor?

Oh, yeah...I remember now...because she doesn't mind sleeping on the floor...See?

This is her pallet beside our bed, where she ends up most nights now.

Confession time...Actually, she gets this honest! I often slept as closely as I could to my mom when I was little, sleeping beside her bed and even sleeping on the kitchen floor sometimes while she was still awake watching TV in the den. I eventually slept with my pillow just inside my doorway for a while before I figured out that my bed was a fine place to sleep. I just hope Grace outgrows it faster than I did!! :)

I also walked in my sleep (Robert does this, too) and talked in my sleep (all three of the kids do this. Come to think of it, I still do sometimes...poor Jason). It's a wonder we get any sleep around here. ;)

So, did you--or do your children--do any of these kinds of things when they should be sleeping peacefully in their own beds?

Overheard: The Long and Long-Overdue Edition

I’ll start off this long-overdue edition with an old conversation from August:

Jason [watching pre-season football on TV]: Grace, I don’t like Jon Kitna as quarterback. He gets rid of the ball too early and he doesn’t spend enough time in the pocket.

Grace [leaning in, confused, with a bewildered tone of voice]: Are you the same person?

This was Grace’s first experience with the foreign language of football. Jason does this to me, too--I (usually) politely play along and agree with whatever he says, although sometimes I'll get a little sassy with him...as though I know anything about football. ;)

~~~~~

Me: You are so sweet, Grace!

Grace [hugging me]: Yes, I am. I am sweeter than you.

Me [laughing]: You’re sweeter than me?

Grace: [seriously]: Yes. And you are sweeter than me, Mommy. [Hugs me again]

~~~~~

During a trip to Zaxby’s, there was a toddler screaming his head off in regular intervals…Grace looked at me, sighed, and voiced her typical matter-of-fact comment:

Grace: Dat baby's gonna get lots of spankin's.

Can't you just see her shaking her head while saying that?

~~~~~

Josiah ate pineapple upside down cake recently and loved it. He didn’t remember eating it before, and declared it the best cake in the world. Jason related this conversation…

Jason: Grandad’s mother made pineapple upside down cake, and lots of people said it was the best pineapple upside down cake they’d ever eaten.

Josiah [with genuine astonishment and total wonder at this thought]: Wow…my head would explode.

~~~~~

One night while leaving a baseball game…

Josiah: Are there people with two heads?

Jason: No.

Josiah: Some girl I was talking to said that there were. I didn’t think there were. It sounds like evolution.

~~~~~

After some of her lunch dropped on the floor, Grace hopped down from her chair to pick it up and pop it into her mouth.

Me: Grace, you shouldn’t eat off the floor. It’s not that clean.

Grace: But it’d only been there five minutes.

Me: You mean five seconds?

Grace [slight hesitation]: Yeeeess.

Me: Do you even know what “five seconds” means?

Grace [counting a little slowly]: One, two, three, four, five!

So, yes, she has seen the complete demonstration of the “five-second rule” by her brothers.

~~~~~

Me [urging Robert to hurry up and get to bed]: Hurry, Robert! Faster!

Josiah: Boy, I bet Robert’s glad he’s not one of Pharaoh’s slaves!

His Bible lessons have been on Moses. That, along with Grace’s continued fascination with the “Prince of Egypt” movie and children‘s book, means that all of those details remain fresh in his mind.

~~~~~

Jason [shushing Grace]: Shhh! You’ll wake up the brownies!

He meant to say, “You’ll wake up Josiah” but apparently brownies were on his mind…So I made brownies that night.




And, may I add, I think it's definitely a turning point in our marriage that Jason wouldn't even wonder why I was standing on a chair in our kitchen to take a picture of brownies...or, at least, he wouldn't say anything out loud about it...

~~~~~

Grace [looking down at her feet as she walks to the car to go to church on Sunday morning: Mommy, I have the most beautiful-est shoes in da whole wide world!”

~~~~~

Grace: If I was in jail, and my mouth was closed, I’d still be Grace.

Me: Why would you be in jail?

Grace: ‘Cause a bad guy put us there.

She went on to discuss various other jail scenarios; one was similar to the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. All were more than a bit odd.

~~~~~

Grace: Before I was born, God decided to create a girl named Grace, so He made me! And God decided to create a mommy named Amy, and He made you!

~~~~~

Grace: Mommy, does this make me look like a boy?

She had just put on a Georgia basketball outfit that both boys had worn when they were toddlers…not a bit of pink or purple on it. But, even so, I doubt she would ever be mistaken for a boy. Especially since, as she asked this question, she tilted her head with her bouncy curls in a decidedly girly way.

~~~~~

Josiah [excited and a little annoyed]: Stop it, Grace! I’m trying to get on the blog!

Robert [from the next room, in a tattle-tale kind of voice]: Mom, Josiah’s just trying to get on the blog.

This is what he came up with…after I stopped him from wrapping a rubber band around his nose and ear…

The Lord's Prayer

After I posted the last video of Grace, I remembered that the Pledge of Allegiance was not what she first memorized...it was the Lord's Prayer. So I had to record that, too...

Enjoy! She gets a little, um, excited and emphatic at the end. ;)

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)

Grace learned the Lord's Prayer the same way she learned the pledge--simply hearing me repeat it every night during her bedtime routine. I'm taking my friend Christi's advice and teaching her Psalm 23 now. Maybe she will spend more time repeating that rather than singing "Yankee Doodle" about a hundred times each day--that's something else she has recently learned.