To 'Linger' is Passive

I linger,
I long,
I wait for You.
Supplicant,
head thrown back,
arms out,
hands raised to praise,
heart waiting to receive.
The deep places of my heart
thirst for You alone.
But I am too easily distracted...

With haste, I return to You
and wait for You to rain Your love,
Your grace and Your mercy down on me.
Rain on me.
Reign in me.
I long for You.
I linger.
Come.

Spring in Northern Minnesota

Spring has officially been here for a couple weeks, Easter is less than a week away and true to tradition, we will reach a high of a whopping 41 degrees today. In the sun, no doubt. In the morning, we walk over frozen mud, in the afternoon we avoid the salty sludge and try to keep the mud off our shoes - no small feat with a 4 year old. And the fight over winter boots or mud boots or tennies is getting old. It's the time of year where a winter coat is almost too much to wear in the morning and definitely too much in the afternoon but a spring jacket is not quite enough to ward off the damp chill. A common sight during our drive home in the evening is watching retirees shovel the mounds of snow plowed & packed on the edges of lawns into the street to hasten melting. We are DESPERATE people! Our 13 year old has broken out the shorts and flipflops, wearing a hoodie instead of even a light fleece jacket, but always with a knit hat, too long hair curling around the edges. Impatiently shoving hair out of his eyes, he denies the need for a hair cut. But the sun is out, gardens are planned and even planted indoors under sun lamps. Come on spring! We are waiting for you! We are desperate!

Grace-ism

Grace - Mom, You're the big super hero and I'm the little super hero.
Kathy - What's my super power?
G - Feeding the dog! (with no hesitation)
Please note, I do not feed the dog unless Micah is gone. I don't think Grace has ever seen me feed the dog. Great super power, Grace. Thanks.

Flashback Friday

WILD CHILD

I scanned a bunch of photos from when I was little and
when all our photos were moved to our backup system
we evidently lost the tags on them.
Another task looms in front of me.
I didn't find the photos I was looking for
as I got sidetracked by some of these photos
of our WILD CHILD.

This is what happens when my lotion bottle meets a curious toddler over a freshly shampooed carpet.

4th of July Parade, 2007

We didn't have a digital camera when Micah was little
so I also have a scanning project in my future.
Happy Friday, everyone!

Grace-ism

Kathy - We need to hurry, Dad's cooking supper at home.
Grace - What are we having for supper?
K - Fish & potatoes.
G - I don't like that.
K - Do you know what fish does? It's brain food. It helps your brain learn and grow. It's good for you.
G - I like my little brain. I'm not eating it.

Not much happening

Not much to write about today, which is a good thing! I thought I'd do some quick housekeeping ('blog-keeping'?) and put up a few photos from recently. Here is hubby throwing boiling water into the air on a frigid Minnesota Saturday. Fun experiment! It really does turn to steam.
Micah did one, too, and the steam burned his hand. We are great parents. He's OK.
Grace playing Micah's Guitar Hero drums down in the basement. Her feet can't reach the bass and she really doesn't have rhythm, but if it keeps her happy...
A friend at work gave me a link to plant seeds outside in the winter. Hubby & Grace picked seeds; sunflowers, pansies and stuff to make salsa!
Watering...
Making a face about onions. Yuck! She promised to try everything they grow.
The results! We're saving more milk cartons to do more! Here's the link to see how to do it. Since we did this, NO SUN! Not sure how it'll go with out the greenhouse effect...
More results...
Love the boots (Raining Cats & Dogs...), hate the old mustard color/weird henna print floor. She's outgrowing the boots. Bummer. I've outgrown the floor...
What Micah did while the planting party was going on.
Finally, my lunch yesterday. Mmmm, Thai buffet. Jasmin iced tea. Something else really good over rice where you thought you were getting a potato and it was a chunk of apple, then you'd think, 'here comes another apple' - surprise! Potato. Good stuff! Lunch with work friends.

Oh - I do have something to share! I thought this was a brilliant idea, maybe you've all had it before. I'm always behind on correspondence, of the paper variety, and while trying to catch up with my 85 year old aunt it occurred to me to print some of my blog posts! Then she gets the news, and bonus pictures of the kids, and I don't have to rewrite it! I still wrote a personal note in a card, though. (She always wants to know 'who puts that stuff out there [on the internet] anyway???' I do!) See? Brilliant! Everyone must have people who don't use technology but would like to see your blog, right?
One last pic of Grace eating cereal, and mostly watching Saturday morning cartoons, at a little card table & chairs that were my aunt's or maybe my dad's in the 50s. I love the table & chairs, her expression, the hand on her hip, and her little crossed legs.

Glasses, New Perspective II

Old glasses.

New glasses