Blossom & Bloom

 Gorgeous Grace

 Little girl + flowers= smile!

 Now that is one tall flower.

Jane Austin elegance

 Precious capture!

 Taken by my wonderful photographic sister

 Blue eyes!

 Daisy Girl

 Cousin love...

 And best friends!

 Windblown but beautiful!

 Dogwood trees in luster and bloom

New Blog in the Family!

Dear avid and faithful readers of my blog (I know, I like being optimistic),

Recently Mama began a new blog called Back Home in Indiana,  in honor of some news that has been released—quite thrilling news in fact.  You can also read the story I wrote for Vision Forum's 2012 story contest.

 Head on over and check out all the news!  And maybe even follow Mama's blog (hint, hint). =)

Until next time (and it will be soon, you have my word, for I have an insatiable desire to blog for some unknown reason),

Semper Reformanda

Magical Reality

Life is busy this time of year.  The pecan trees are ripe in harvest, my mind and hands are busy with Christmas gifts, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, the leaves keep turning colors and enveloping the ground (and I just love Fall walks as the leaves crunch underneath my feet!), I'm reveling in continual happiness, friendship is blooming and blossoming, and I am satiated in God's goodness.  Life couldn't possibly be any better from my point of view.

Liberty loving our huge pile of leaves

This past month and a half has almost been eye-opening for me.  I am amazed at God's goodness each morning that I behold a new day.  Although family relationships remain top priority, friendship is a beautiful thing, even outside the home.  Especially that friendship which has lasted years and years, ever since childhood.  It is a bittersweet and nostalgia feeling to see life-long friends that were playmates as children suddenly become men and women.  Where does time go?  Life suddenly seems to become confusing, exciting, unbelievable, and incredible at the same time.  A friendship that remains devoted, loyal, and constant is a friendship that will press on to even greater heights.  And that is a blessing from God.

I don't think I need say I am sated.  It is bliss. It is magical. It is grace. It is happiness. It is wondrous.

"Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: 

so doth the sweetness of a man's friend 

by hearty counsel." -Proverbs 27:9

"Iron sharpeneth iron; 

so a man sharpeneth 

the countenance of his friend."

-Proverbs 27:17

Just A Reminder: He Made Us

O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me.  

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.  

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.  

For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.  

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 

and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

~Psalm 139:1-4, 23-24

I love this reminder of God's sovereignty.  Here the Psalmist is telling us that God knows everything about us: when we sit down, when we rise up, our thoughts, and every word our tongue speaks—compassing every single tiny detail about us.  Then in verse 14 of the same chapter David continues:

"I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: 

marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

I love that.  I love how God fashioned us and created us—each with different personalities, looks, and characteristics—and loves us each as something terrifically exceptional and incomparable because He made us.  There is such power in those three words: He made us.  If He made us, and He is God Almighty, then nothing can be wrong, absolutely nothing.  And even more than that, He knows everything about us, even from our very number of hairs (Matt.10:30; Luke 12:7). That alone is astounding.amazing.powerful.awing.inspiring.extraordinary.bliss.

Doesn't that alone tell you how supremely excellent our God is?

I don't know about you, but I need to be reminded every day of just that, and I think that goes for all of us.  Too often we are burdened down by the cares of this world and forget of how wonderfully crafted we are and how much mercy God bestows on us each and every day.  We forget all of the extensive blessings that God has given us (i.e. breath, health, food, raiment) as we dwell on the negatives of life.  Even if we are not blessed with great material wealth, while we retain breath in our body we have been given a gift.  And an even greater gift we have been given is the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Even when we compare how much we don't have (material wealth) to how much we do have (eternal wealth), I'd say we have much more than we deserve. 

Like I said, I don't know about you, but I need to be reminded every day of just that.

Summertime in Georgia in Pictures

 Playing scrabble while cookies are in the oven =)

 I love the grin on my little cousin's chubby face!

Grown-up little Liberty

 Mischievous

 Basking in sunlight and Georgia heat

 Darling!

 Ecstasy

 Summer figs

 My amazing artistic sister

 Mommy and Baby love

 I just love this picture of me and my cousin Annabel...she is so cute!

Not to mention that she took the picture herself

A day just isn't a day without books...