Daily Reflections that Shine Light on Personal Darkness

90 Days of God's Goodness by Randy Alcorn is meant to be used as a three month devotional reminding us of the goodness of God in our everyday lives. This would be a particularly fantastic devotional, reaching deep into the heart, for people who have been hurting in life or struggling through situations seemingly out of control. Through out the daily devotionals (each about two pages long), Randy continually points the reader to God's love and goodness, even in the midst of pain and darkness.

I was sent this book by the publisher to review. In no way was my review influenced by its freeness.

Please cast your vote!

Head on over to Circle of Moms here where I'd love it if you'd cast your votes for some of the fantastic Christian women bloggers in the race. It is a great opportunity for them to be salt and light. I'm no where near the head of the race (waaayyyy down near the bottom, which is A.O.K) but I do appreciate the extra blog traffic I've been getting from the voting.

Have a great Memorial Day everyone ~ so thankful for all the heros who have served for my freedom!

The Yearly

Every year Aiden has his annual check of the kidneys and assorted plumbing at Albany Med's pediatric urology department. You can read a little more of the road God carried us along here and see how we celebrated his finally being off of antibiotics after two straight years here.

Aiden was born in Syracuse, NY and actually had one of his operations there, when he was seventeen months old. We never had good experiences in Syracuse and God blessed us with finding Dr. Kogan at Albany Medical.

So, want to know a sure fire way for getting in and out of the doctor's office on time?

Bring six children with you.

Aiden was in and out, ultrasound and all, in under an hour. (smile)

And while we (briefly) waited for his test results to be reviewed, I kept the other kids occupied with riddles. Don't you love Andrew's puzzled face here? And Ella has fallen back in exasperation.

Annaliese, holding Addie, in the background finally solved the riddle.

What is my name?

I have the name of a vegetable I am not.

I have the name of an animal I am not.

Leave your guesses in the comments and I'll think up something fun to send to the first one to guess correctly.

We left the doctors with a happy report and will visit again next year. We had a great family day in Albany, eating out a Chipotle, visiting the Albany campus of our church and stopping by General Herkimer's home.

Hands

Her hand

is almost as big as mine now.

Ten summers ago she was just a little thing,

splashing

in her yellow duckie swimsuit

on the front porch of our first home

in the city,

trying to eat dandelions while I gardened

with her beside me

lazily enjoying the days of just her and me

while the papa was at work.

I am her mama, it's true

but I can clearly see the heart in her

that will make her my friend one day

Everyone always says their kids grew up too fast

and if truth be told,

I would slow down the hands of time

just a little

with this lass.

She'll stare you down, look deep into you with those blue basins, contemplate your life and hers in one glance, and make you work for a smile. She is our soulful child.

Laundry on the Homestead

Nine

Andrew turned nine in May, on a Saturday, and requested a day at the cabin with his woods and his grandparents. And so it was.





Addie (6 1/2 mos) with my friend Gail.












Happy 9th birthday to my outdoor woodsman of a boy!

Three

Our sweet Chase turned three earlier this month. About four years ago, God spoke to Sean's heart and told him He wanted to give him another son. And so He did.

It's been a while. New old house blog post here.

It's Been up there a Good Half Hour

Pssst.... don't forget to scroll down and enter the giveaway before Friday!

Birthday at the Lake

Chase (3) with his chocolate chip cookie bar on the shale beach.

God's glitter. Sun sparkles on the lake.

I remember when these toes were sooo little.

Beautiful lake bottom.



My babes lined up on the shore. Andrew (9) cozied in a wool blanket. He'd been making rafts in the cold lake water and the shale was hot to lie on.

Teething woes comforted by her Papa's love.

Beautiful Annaliese (10).

Andrew fishing.

Loving rewarded with a smirk.

The birthday girl had requested a lake visit for her birthday. The weather was in the 70's and gorgeous! Ella had also requested brownies instead of cake. The Babycakes recipe for gluten free brownie bites are amazing.



How is she already five? I seriously cannot think on my children's ages or I get weepy and sentimental.

Sweet contemplative Aide (6).

Pretty piece of orange glass.

Fabulous reading, fabulous view and fabulous company all cuddled up...

P.s. Don't forget to scroll down and sign up to win a copy of the parenting reference For Instruction In Righteousness

For Instruction in Righteousness Review and Giveaway!

"For Instruction in Righteousness is a parenting topical Bible", I was told when Doorposts offered to send me a review copy and give away a copy to a reader of Cultivating Home.


Encouraging my children with the Word of God has been in the front of my thoughts this year and so I looked forward to seeing what this manual had to offer. I was so surprised and pleased at how comprehensive it is. I was shocked, actually. It would take me so very, very long to put anything like this all together myself. When Doorposts mentions that it contains Bible verses and parenting ideas for over 50 different parenting challenges, they are telling the truth. This is a thick reference manual and each parenting challenge is given a few pages of content with supporting scriptures, suggestions on discipline for each issue, suggestions for object lessons and verses to encourage. You can see an example of one parenting issue and how it is broken down and addressed, argument and contention, here.



Here is a quote from the Doorposts website:
"We want our children to understand that “right” and “wrong” are absolutes, based on God’s standards, not ours. If we train our children to submit to the authority of God’s standards, those standards will not change when the children grow up and leave the authority of our homes.
We don’t want to discipline in anger; we want to show grief over the child’s sin, and we want to lead him to true repentance.
When we discipline, we want to picture for our children our heavenly Father’s holiness and His mercy. That is why we went to the Bible and started studying."

I think this is a fabulous resource to have in our home library. The indexes make it easy for me to quickly look up a subject, find a verse to talk about with my child on the issue they are struggling with and encourage them in the Lord. While there are suggestions for discipline or consequences for each issue, Sean and I did not think all of them would fit/work for our family. Not a huge issue and the benefit of this book is not hindered by this. I am so excited that they are giving a copy away to one of you!

Entries:
1) Leave a comment
2) Blog or FB link this giveaway
3) "Like" Doorposts on FB

I'm answering a reader's question from the mailbag over at Raising Homemakers today...

Weekly GF Menu

Monday am - home made English muffins, fried eggs
lunch - Antipasta salad
dinner - potroast w. veggies and dumplings

Tuesday am- cereal w/ milk and bananas
lunch- buckwheat sweet potato bread, cheese sticks, apple slices with peanut butter
dinner- quiche, biscuits
Homeschool Presentation Night

Wed am - German pancakes with lemon, butter and sugar
lunch- yogurt with granola, fresh fruit
dinner- roast chicken with root veggies, brownies
Eleanora's 5th Birthday!

Thursday am -scones, kefir smoothies
lunch- chicken quesadillas
dinner- fish tacos, rice and beans

Friday am- coconut corn cakes
lunch- A Picnic! Cornbread, cheese slices, sunshine tapioca, carrot sticks...
Soccer and Homeschool Trunk Sale
dinner- chicken and rice soup, chocolate chip cookie bars (you should make these, they're amazing!)

Wet

Poetry

She won first place in the library's poetry contest. And then she stood up in front of a room full of strangers and shared her words with them and accepted her prize.
I'll let her tell you about it in her own words one of these days soon...

A day at the Cabin in photos