Summer

It's been four months since posting something, and since I really don't know where to begin I'll start with the other day. It was 2 pm, nearly 104 degrees, and my girls were begging to go outside. Why? I don't know. Nevertheless, I found myself standing in the middle of our P.E. field motivating 12 girls to put forth effort and play an actual game of volleyball. All of a sudden, the girl who was suppose to be serving began running and flailing her arms. Not far behind her was a yellow jacket buzzing his way through the mid-day air. The student alternated between high-pitched screaming and angry shouting. “It's chasing me, I hate bees, oh my gosh, it's chasing me!” The blocker on the other team advised her, “Just calm down and run in a zig-zag!” This comment was offset by the setter, one of her friends, who informed everyone, “That's for alligators, you idiot!” And before I knew it everyone was ready to come inside.

The Westminster Confession

"My whole life was an elaborate scheme to keep God at a distance." Jack Miller

Sometimes it feels like Christmas everyday. There are days filled with awe and wonder because of Christ. Sometimes they begin with coffee and CBR. Today one evolved during our reading of the Larger Catechism. He overwhelms me. The fact that I can never be more justified than I am right now... My justification rests on Jesus Christ, and His righteousness is full and complete everyday. Even on my worst day. Even on my best day. "...so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."

It's more than a thank You. It's more than an I love You. It's an I-need-You-more-than-air-kind-of-thing. And He gives! He gives Himself.

"Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

Q. 70. What is justification?

A. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in His sight; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.

"Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy..."

A Week (ish) in Review, Again.

Living healthy and being safe... So far, so good. Eating well isn't that difficult. Wogging around the lake is actually fun. And I've abandoned my daily melanoma coma (napping in a tanning bed after work). Our YMCA is awesome for opening at 5am, and it's great to do some actual running on their treadmills. Which brings me to this photo. I recently bought a lock to use on a locker at the Y. While removing the combination lock from the packaging one morning, I noticed this statement typed on the left side in bold letters-- WARNING: This product contains one or more chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other harm... Wash hands after handling. So, there it is. The lock I handle for when I go running is dangerous.

Walking downtown always results in a good time. A few weeks ago, our Discipleship by Grace group had ditched the lesson and decided to convene for dinner instead. We were seated near a giant window at the Chop Shop and suddenly had the most amazing view of a woman going for a walk. With her pet rabbit. On a leash. With a harness. She was just eccentric enough for me to not worry about asking if I could take their picture. This, of course, is after I bolted out of the building with my camera phone ready and aimed at Bugs.

I walked in on dancing Dave and Stormy in the kitchen. We were all waiting for the strawberry shortcake, made with the scone recipe, to finish cooking. The plan is to do an entire blog on Dave one of these days, much like I did with Stormy's bio a few months back. This will take time to develop as, most of you know, Dave is an amalgam of unbridled humor, energy and depth.

This is a picture of Leeloo, my journal. Shut-up. My mind is a dangerous neighborhood and I wish I could move out. This week I realized something very important. The flesh, the world and the Devil are all in opposition to me. For a long time I've stared almost solely at the flesh. Wow. Here's to being blindsided.

Happy Endings

In God's order for life there is

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance (Eccl. 3:4)

The Early Bird Special

Today, while my girls were outside in the P.E. field, an eagle flew overhead and lost his grip on dinner. A Florida bass about 12 inches long landed right at the girls' feet. I've never seen teen girls so excited about cleaning out fish guts, cooking, or wanting to eat fish for dinner.
Apparently, the principal food for bald eagles is fish, which the birds seize by using their strong talons to take their prey from the water. Also, eagles are not above stealing food from other raptors such as ospreys. Scientists have observed eagles "harassing" ospreys to force them to drop freshly caught fish that the eagles then snatch in mid-air. I'm not sure how this eagle got his dinner, but these four girls at the center are thrilled about how they got theirs!

6 Conversations

Many of you have asked what we've been doing on our vacation. We're enjoying each other!

Who We Are

Jenna, Donna, Bek, Cheryl, and Stormy

1. Jenna's Obsession With Alligators
J- I haven’t seen any alligators. Don’t think I’ll come down and visit you again if I can’t see alligators this time.
D- Go walk Lake Hunter. There’re tons. One of them almost ate Joshua.
J- I’ve walked this whole road and Lake Hunter a million times. There are no alligators.
D- Yes, there are. I have pictures.
C- Let’s buy a raw chicken since we’re on our way to Publix. We’ll go throw it in the lake and see what happens.
J- Yeah!

2. Annual Crawfish Boil
B- I know this’ll probably gross you out, Cheryl, but you take the crawfish, eat the meat out of the tail and suck the juice out of his head.
C- Did you just say you suck the juice out of his head?
D- Bek, it’s not the crawfish. Cheryl’s very sensitive to double-entendre.

3. Driving Past Lake Wire
C- I just saw swans having sex.
D- They do that sometimes to make more swans. Lake Wire is really just a giant waterbed.
C- I don’t know what to say.
D- I don’t either. Sexcellent?

4. The 2009 Chick-Fil-A Calendar
J- Al and I may have to have joint custody of this Chick-Fil-A calendar. He can have it every other month and I can have it every other month.

C- Do you remember my Chick-Fil-A toothbrush in college?

D- Yes, the cow was holding both the toothbrush and a sign that reads “Eat more chicken.”

C- Exactly. I was sad when that thing started to grow mold.

5. Sunday, After Church

C- Trinity feels like home. I love hanging out with you, my friend!

D- It’s because Sunday’s the day we’ve set aside to be introspective. Sundays kick my ass the same way they kick yours.

6. That Cat
C- Ugh. Last night that cat was awake screaming like a baby outside my window for an hour at 1:30am.
D- Yeah he does that every night. Once he was perched on the AC outside the window. Somehow he made his paw a fist, knocked on my window, and then fell off the unit with a huge thud. I hate that cat.
C- You guys need to get rid of him.
D- Hey, there’s this “cat lady” in my old neighborhood. She feeds the 17 strays outside her house. Let’s go drop him off there.
C- Great. It’s 12:30 in the morning and you want to put a stray cat in a car and drive him to a different neighborhood?
S- I’ll drive.
(Mission completed. The cat is now a resident of Dixieland.)

A Storm called Stormy

If I’m compact, selective and loud, Stormy is orderly, gracious and poised. I’d love for all my friends and family to meet her. No doubt they’d be just as fond of her as I am. She’s charming, agreeable, zany and imaginative. And despite all these Sanguine-like traits, Stormy is unmistakably official, methodical and reliable. She’s an old soul like Aunt Jemima, with a dry, playful wit that reminds me of Bonny Hunt.

Stormy enjoys:

Latin dancing (she’s been a “Salsa Freak” for over a year now).

Music (in Spanish which she cannot speak nor understand).

Brainstorming (about books she will one day write and publish and businesses she’ll surely start).

Collecting hundreds of dishes. (She once bought an entire collection of dishware from a catering business.) Stormy’s response when asked if she bought dishes from a caterer? “Well, that’s just the white dishes.”

Things that involve being systematic and meticulous. (I think she’s in the processes of converting her paper files into electronic documents and reviewing her finances that are in Excel.)

Drinking, preparing and serving tea. (Preferably on her front porch in one of her dozens of “pretty but useful” teapots, on one of her many trays lined with freshly ironed, flowery, cloth napkins because she’s “not a fan of doilies.” Apparently, “even the word ‘doily’ is dumb.”

Making sure everything is clean. (See below for what it looks like when Stormy dries some of the said dishes) I walked into the kitchen only to immediately turn around and run for my camera.




Hosting people and their things. Despite the two bedroom bungalow, Stormy always has room to host. She also has components of her friend’s gumball business stored in her garage.

Freshly baked cookies. One afternoon, Stormy had “a craving for freshly baked peanut butter cookies.” Ergo, she made cookie dough from scratch and baked 4 cookies. Yes, 4. The rest of the dough she strategically placed in the fridge so she could bake and consume “freshly baked peanut butter cookies at any time.”

My favorite Stormy quote? "I'm about to commit horticultural theft."