Wordless Wednesday: Bubbles

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You Capture: "What inspires you?"

This week's photography challenge was to find what inspires each of us.

I could have said that what inspires me is the beauty we can find around us in the everyday things--the beauty of God's creation, the beauty of that particular mix of sweetness and silliness that I see in my children, the beauty of well-chosen words, the beauty of relationships.

Because, ultimately, life is about relationships.

With that in mind...

This week I was listening to a song from an album that my son introduced me to, and a particular line struck me:

...And this life sentence that I'm serving
I admit that I'm every bit deserving
But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.

--Be My Escape by Relient K (click on that link to watch/listen on YouTube)

No, life is not fair. And especially in the area of eternity, I don't want it to be fair. I don't want to get what I deserve. "The wages of sin is death." That means that what I deserve--what I've earned because of sin--is death. Eternal separation from God. So, no, I don't want to get what I deserve. I want grace.

And I can't have that without first having a relationship with Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Photo of a painting in my home of Jesus

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 NIV

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 24-25 NIV

And if that isn't inspiring, I don't know what is.

Check out other You Capture entries at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Wordless Wednesday: Shirley Temple curls

Grace: June 2008 (2 years old)

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Get the wiggles out!

We have a pretty large, long back yard, which can come in handy to get the wiggles out so my 8 year old can focus on school work. I have him run back and forth 3 times; he typically giggles through the 1st run and then picks up speed on the 2nd and 3rd time. ;)


I don't have him run every day (he's pretty active on his own), but do this as needed to help get him to the point where he can do what we need to cover. If needed, I will interrupt school time to have him run; when he comes back to his work, he can think much clearer and our school time goes much better...plus he's getting in better shape for Upward basketball.

If it's a rainy or particularly cold day, some indoor things I've done with Josiah are:

1. Jumping jacks, running in place, sit ups, or other exercises that don't require a lot of room or equipment. I think last year Josiah's record for jumping jacks was 112...whew! (And he did those on his own. I would ask him to do 30-50, which he can easily do.)
2. Running or briskly walking back and forth down the hallway a certain number of times. Depending on the layout of your home, you may have a nice little "track."
3. Using a deck of cards, you or your child(ren) assign a simple exercise to each suit. For example, diamonds are jumping jacks and clubs are sit ups. Draw a number card and have your child do that many of the exercise...so if you drew a 4 of diamonds, you would say, "Do 4 jumping jacks." The randomness of this makes it a little more fun. I wish I could remember where I heard of this hint, because I certainly didn't make it up. :)

After burning off some energy, we can move through the seatwork much faster and he is paying attention...and that works for me!


This post is also linked to Helpful Homeschool Hints, hosted by Angie at Many Little Blessings.

What'cha think?

I've been hacking away obsessively gradually cutting my hair shorter and shorter over the last week or so, and this is where I've stopped.

(For now.)

(Just kidding, Jason.)



I would like to cut another inch or two off the back. But that may be pushing the limits of my "talent" (ha) and my husband's nerves, so I won't.

Yet.

Kidding, Jason. Just kidding...

Beautiful

Grace (4 years old)
November 2010

You Capture: Serene

Serene...hmmm...Yeah, I could use some of that.

This week I captured serene skies

Can you see the tiny thumbnail of a moon?

and a serene, frosty morning. (That was Sunday morning; most of this week--today included--temperatures have been back in the low 70s.)



I captured serene looks on the face of a sleeping child

Oh, the cute button nose! Grace looks most like she did as a baby in this shot.

And, oh, the sweet cheeks!

I captured this serene view while we were at the library and my daughter was lining up all the Angelina Ballerina videos to make a choice.


And the square looked serene as we drove through to continue our errands.


After errands were done and we were back home, Sleeping Beauty continued the nap she had started while we were on the road. She is apparently not doing well with the time change--she rarely takes a nap, yet slept for 2.5 hours this afternoon...slumped over a chair in the living room...with no one being particularly quiet.



...Which explains why she was anything but serene while we were out today.

Check out other You Capture entries at I Should Be Folding Laundry, and join in on the fun!

All photos are SOOC except for some cropping and the editing of the street signs for bloggy secrecy.