Amma on Loving Children

1 John 4:16--And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

What I specially want to bring you is this: Young children . . . have only one way of knowing how loving [our Lord] is.  They look at us.  If there be any flaw in our love, if we fail them at any point, we make it just so much the harder for them to see, to know, to apprehend, His love.  Do not let us fail our children.  "Love through me, Love of God."

August 14 entry in Edges of His Ways, a collection of daily devotional notes by Amy Carmichael

Celebrating Eight

Festivities started with the family party.  Grandpa McLeran's birthday cookie can be seen in this pic.  Eva, Cael, and good ol' Mom were included in the honorees for this bash as well. (More pics to come in a later post.)  So much to celebrate!

For the next event, Anna talked Daddy and her siblings into helping her make another pinata like they did for her birthday last year.  She enjoyed painting it, and everyone enjoyed bashing it.  The girls all had their line-up order planned out long before pinata time came!

The other big highlight of the birthday play was painting.  (Not to mention the sprinkler to keep everyone cool and the fire to roast their own hot dogs.)  If the level of fun is judged by the messy condition the children leave in, then it's pretty safe to say everyone had a blast. 

Ian the Clown

I'm waaaay behind on posting birthday pictures, but these self portrait shots of a non-birthday boy at one of our recent gala events make me smile too much not to put them up.  We'll get to the true stars of our recent shows shortly.

Motherhood and Identity: Comparison and the List You Need to Tape to Your Forehead

The title of this post is also the title for the July 7 post on the inspired to action blog linked below.  Couldn't do the copy and paste thing for the specific page for some odd reason.  I really do think it's worth a couple extra clicks, though.  She seems very balanced as she reminds us that it's easy as Moms to feel guilty for things we were not commanded by God to do.  Doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God is all that's required--and how that fleshes out will look different from mom to mom.

www.inspiredtoaction.com

If I Were Magic--by: Anna

If I were magic I could fly into space and live on Jupiter.  I could have a beautiful palace and never die if I were magic.  I would never be sick or miserable.  I would be able to rule the whole world.  I would rule the seas.  I would be really, really rich.  I would never run out of money.  I could make people do what I wanted them to do. (I would never do that, though.)  If I were magic I would never have any trouble at all.

THE END

                                                           

Photo credit: Ruthanne @ Eclectic Whatnot
Typing credit: Ian the Magnificent

The Little Old Woman-- by: Anna

Once upon a time there was an old woman who did not have a home.  She looked and looked but
she could not find one, so she walked for a long time until she saw a small house far away beside the country
road.  When she got there she saw a dog, a chicken, a cat, and a horse who had no home. 

She went to work.  She put in windows in; she painted the house--the inside of the house yellow the outside red.  When the house was finished, she built a fence around the house.  Along the outside of the fence she planted flowers of every kind.  Then she moved in. 

When she looked out of a window she said, "The grass needs to be mowed."  So she went outside and started mowing.  An hour later she finished.  When she had put up the mower she went
inside and said, '' I am lonely.  I wish I had a friend to talk to."  Then for the second time she saw the animals."  She said, "Animals, you may live with me."  And all the animals ran to her.  The little old woman was very glad to have the animals for friends.  And she never was lonely again.
     
                                                                 THE END

King of the Nursery

Cael's fun set-up pictured here was knit by his good friends Sarah and Lauren.  Sarah created the hat, and Lauren provided the coordinating block.  They gave him this gift ten months ago, and now he's finally big enough for a proper photo op.