Divine Economics--Deuteronomy 15:4-6

. . . for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it: Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day. For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

Picasso's Birthday

We've been celebrating Lewis's birthday this week. It all started with a yummy dipped apple on Sunday, courtesy of some sweet friends. Then on Tuesday evening, the birthday boy got to help me with my Walmart shopping in order to use his gift card from Uncle Jeff and Aunt Candi. The picture above shows the double barrel nerf dart gun he selected for his prize. It has been the toy of choice all week for the men of the house--young and old.

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The actual day of birth was yesterday, and thanks to a kind friend who had some extra painting supplies, we celebrated with an outdoor art session--the first of its kind in our household. The three eldest Jr. Mc's donned their art smocks (Daddy's old T-shirts), and a couple neighbor boys even joined in on the fun. I've posted the pics below to document the fact that I can occasionally be a fun, crafty mom.

The crowning event of our week is yet to come and will certainly require its own post. Tomorrow we hope to load up the Green Machine (our new-to-us eleven passenger family-mobile) and make a trek with grandparents and a couple friends to the Memphis Zoo.

Happy Fifth Birthday, Lewis!!!



(Ian was in on the art festivities, too,

but he was the one operating the camera for all but the top picture.)

An Agnostic Attack on Religious Liberalism

"Religion, if it is to retain any genuine significance, can never be reduced to a series of sweet attitudes, possible to anyone not actually in jail for felony. It is, on the contrary, a corpus of powerful and profound convictions, many of them not open to logical analysis."

~H.L. Mencken (quoted in John Piper's article in the April issue of Leben)

Lonely Jocelyn

With the three eldest siblings spending the night with Grammy and Grandad in preparation for attending a Memorial Day ceremony and Eva in her crib in the nursery, last night was probably the first time since she moved to the kids room at about 16 months that three-year-old Jocelyn had slept in a room alone. Titus and I had remarked on how there was no problem at all with her going to bed in that big room on the other side of the house all by herself, but this was what we saw in the living room when we got up this morning. That bright green and purple near her head is her blanket "precious" that she wadded up on top of the pillow.

A Simple Solution--Psalm 37:3a

Trust in the LORD, and do good; . . .

The "Almighty" Dollar

My dear husband has requested another economics post. Here is his latest source for education in that area. I think he has played nearly all of the crash course on Mr. Martenson's site. Of course, not even the most learned and insightful among us can predict what God has in store, but it definitely makes sense to prayerfully consider what some of these people are saying and humbly make preparations according to the best of our ability--without the fear that can come from losing sight of the fact that God is our ultimate Provider.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/

Crochet Girl

Under the capable tutelage of a twelve-year-old friend, Anna has completed her first crochet project last week. It started out as a hot pad, but she wasn't ready to be finished when it was time to finish off the hot pad, so her friend told her how to keep going and tranform the work into a purse. Anna is very pleased with her first creation and has decided that her next project will be a baby blanket. (Thankfully she requested white yarn for that one!) Our little creative genius has also discovered another use for her former hot pad: