Not Me Monday!

Alternately titled-my Not Me Monday post was finished to

the point of me typing 'TTFN' when my DSL went down and

proceeded to stay down all day because the local tower was

damaged and no one in our area had DSL or cell service

(not if you have both with AT&T, like we do) till late last night,

and the entire post was lost because for some reason the

autosave didn't, well, autosave it, so as much as I love you guys,

I'm not even gonna retype it-cause I just didn't do anything

that interesting last week.

TTFN,

Sunday's Song.

Have a favorite worship song-new or old-
that you'd like to share? Have a story to go along with why
it's so special to you? Tell me what song moves you and
why-leave me a comment or, if you want to blog about it,
a link to your blog!

Sorry this post is so late in the day!

My song this week is How Great Thou Art.

My Papaw was one of my most favorite people on this

earth. He was a wonderful man, but not a church going one.

He had a heart attack on April 1, 1990 while the rest of us

were at church. I was the one who found him. I was crushed,

but even more than the pain of losing him was the pain of not

knowing if he was saved-if I'd ever see him again.

After he died, Memaw told me this was his favorite hymn.

This caught me by surprise because, like I said, he wasn't

a church goer. I loved this song before that, but since then,

it means so much more because it means that maybe, just

maybe, he knew my God. And if he knew God, then maybe

I'll see him again one day.

A friend said to me that we never know a person's heart-only

God does. We never know what happens in the last moments

of a person's life. While I won't know if he is in Heaven until I

get there myself, I take some comfort in this.

How Great Thou Art.

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
(Repeat Refrain.)

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
(Repeat Refrain.)

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!
(Repeat Refrain.)

Wanna listen?

The first link is Carrie Underwood for you more contemporary

friends. The second is the incomparable Mrs. Sandy Patti. Both

are beautiful and quite moving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhvaDJTUmrU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8BumYH8n1k&feature=related

Wikipedia has a detailed history of this song-and it's a

LONG history! It's actually a pretty interesting read, if

you've got the time. This is the introductory paragraph;

"How Great Thou Art" is a Christian hymn based

on a Swedish poem written by Carl Gustav Boberg (1859–1940)

in Sweden in 1885. The melody is a Swedish folk song. It was

translated into English by Stuart K. Hine, who also added two

original verses of his own composition. It was popularized by

George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows during Billy Graham

crusades.[1] It was voted the United Kingdom's favourite hymn

by BBC's Songs of Praise.[2] "How Great Thou Art" was ranked

second (after "Amazing Grace") on a list of the favorite hymns

all time in a survey by Today's Christian magazine in 2001.[3]

Hope you had a blessed Sunday!

TTFN,

Let's Salsa!

Ok, so let's don't salsa-I can't really dance that well.

But Paul apparently does salsa pretty well.

The eating kind that is.

See?

Steamy!

Scooping it into the jars.

Then lidding them.

Then capping the lid!

Not my idea of a fun bath, but necessary nonetheless!

Aren't they pretty?

The finished product!!

On a scoop-yum!

Well, for Paul anyway.

See, I don't eat salsa.

:(

But he says it's pretty darn good.

So, I'm proud of him-it took most of the day, and

he did it all by himself.

Notice in the last pic that he's still not using his thumb-

he can't put enough pressure on it to even hold

the chip. But it is much better.

See you tomorrow for Sunday's Song!

TTFN,

Paul cooks.

Actually, I should clarify-

Paul cooks

~~ALOT~~

And usually a far cry

better than I do.

Today he decided to be ambitious.

Do something he's never done before.

Can you guess what it is??

I hate to say it, but it all looks yucky to me, and my

house smells awful.

But I'll let you know how (he says) it turns out!!

:)

TTFN,

Who was it??

Since I've left you all hanging all day, and I'm certain you

all can't live another minute without knowing, yesterday's

Wordless Wednesday picture was...

Sydney!!

My sweet little chubby cheeked cherub.

Well, one of my sweet little chubby cheeked cherubs.

:)

I'm also attempting to cut back on my blogging time

since it's been cutting in pretty hard on family time

and I've been feeling rotten about it. So I just

decided to cut back.

And I'm totally not going through withdrawals.

Cause I'm not addicted or anything.

Really.

Anyway. If I don't comment on your posts immediately,

I will as soon as I get to it. I'm already far behind on

my reading. But I'll catch up. I hope...

TTFN,

Wordless Wednesday...who am I?

TTFN,

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me Monday!

Created by MckMama as a way for us perfect

moms to share our perfect lives and get in some

much needed therapy in the process!

Click on over and see what she and all the other

moms have not been doing this week!

I have not been in a total funk all week. I am not moody,

weepy, or exhausted for some reason. I do not wish I could

figure out why, as no one in my house, including me, likes me

very much at the moment.

We did not finally put Emmie in a pack and play in our closet

last night. This was not a last ditch attempt to get her to

sleep better-or for Paul and I to be able to sleep in our own

bed again! We have not both been sleeping elsewhere-separately-

for much longer than I care to admit! She did not sleep through the

night, and I did not wake up with my breasts painfully tight

because she hadn't eaten since 8pm last night!!

I was not doing really well at Curves, that is, until the weekend.

Cause, you know, they're closed on weekends.

I did not totally do wonderfully last week with my eating

only to seriously blow it over the weekend. I was not thrilled,

however, when I got on the scale at Curves this morning to

discover that I had not gained any weight on my binge!!

This morning's workout did not almost kill me.

Noah is not finally showing some interest in potty training!

I am not somewhat leery of his interest. He doesn't want to

stay on the potty for extended periods of time, even AFTER

he uses the bathroom! I have not sat in the bathroom with

him for almost 30 minutes with him saying,

'I dotta dough some more, Momma. I not finish!'

At least he's trying. I guess.

That's all I've got energy for this morning. I hope everyone

had a great weekend!!

TTFN,

Sunday's Song

Have a favorite worship song-new or old-

that you'd like to share? Have a story to go along with why

it's so special to you? Tell me what song moves you and

why-leave me a comment or, if you want to blog about it,

a link to your blog!

I was originally going to make this about music that

is typically sung in church, but I decided that there are

many songs on Christian Radio that move me and

I'd like to include those as well.

My song this week is

I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin

I love Chris Tomlin as a general rule. He does really

great music. I remember the day I read that Kayleigh

had passed away. I remember crying and praying and

asking God to send her beautiful family His peace-I can't

imagine going through such a loss. Not long after I finished

reading I had to leave and when I turned on the radio in the

van the DJ was introducing a new song by Chris Tomlin.

It was this.

I Will Rise

There's a peace I've come to know

Though my heart and flesh may fail

There's an anchor for my soul

I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

[Chorus:]

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near

When this darkness breaks to light

And the shadows disappear

And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

[Chorus:]

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb" [x2]

[Chorus:]

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

Play it now: I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin

With tears again streaming down my cheeks, I knew

that God was telling me that He was giving Adam

and Aimee all the peace they would ever need.

I felt so much comfort and peace myself.

And in the funny way God works, Adam's very

next post was titled simply,

I Will Rise.

Wow. Thank you God. You are truly

amazing beyond anything we could ever

imagine.

Hope you had a blessed Sunday,

TTFN,

P.S. There are rumors floating around here that

there have been confirmed cases of swine flu

in our school system. Please pray that if this

is true, the affected children will make a quick

recovery, and that it doesn't spread!!

Help wanted!

First I want to apologize for the quality of these pics-

I was rushing...and...well...it shows.

So, anyway, nearly 2 months ago, I bought this:

with all intention of making my own blog background. It has

lots of fantastic, fun patterns to scan. See?

And there are many more, I just thought it might get redundant

to upload that many pics of prints. There are also these great

punchouts that would be cute accents and tags:

For almost 2 months now this has been collecting dust. My

assumption that there would be some helpful instructions

somewhere on the world wide web has been just that-

an assumption. I have searched and come up with zip.

Zilch. Nada. Zero.

So, I'm asking you, my bloggy friends: do you know how to scan

these items in and make backgrounds and other blogger

templates with them? I would gladly share, if I knew how to

use them!

TTFN,

Wordless Wednesday-Playing with Photoshop Elements

SOOC (Straight out of Camera)

I'm really starting to enjoy Photoshop Elements.

Can you tell?

TTFN,

Finally getting around to it.

I'll never forget when I was young, my Papaw had a

little disc that was just a bit larger than a drink

coaster.

Across the top it said,

'A Round'

and across the bottom it said,

'Tuit'

Scratching your head? Say it together, out loud.

In the middle was a little explanation.

I'm paraphrasing:
'Remember all those times you've put something

off until you got 'A Round Tuit?'

Well, now you've got no excuse-here's your very

own 'Round Tuit!'

Corny, right? But so true. I'm probably the world's

worst procrastinator. Although I am finally getting

better. How many things have gone undone because

I just couldn't get around to it? How many things sit

not put away because I never got around to it? How

many pictures not taken because I never got around

to taking them?

All that to say I finally got around to taking Emmie's

one year pictures that I've been wanting to take

since she was, well, a year old. She's 14 months now.

Better late than never, I suppose.

And they came out really well,

if I do say so myself. :)

These are just a few that I really like and have

already edited. BTW, you photogs out there-just

wondering-do you edit all your pics? I feel the need to

edit most of these because the sun was in and out,

causing the light to be different in just about each

one. Do you ever just keep the SOOC pics? I'm always

afraid I'm going to overedit them and make them

look bad. I only edit copies just in case, even though

I know that Photoshop Elements keeps an original.

These were taken out beside our house. Her hair was brushed,

but the wind kept blowing it around, and in the end,

I really didn't care. I think it looks fine.

The rocking chair was Paul's when he was little.

Sweet, huh?

I took about 120 pics before she got frustrated with

me, and it helped that the cat joined us halfway through.

The cat is prominent in several of the shots (I may

share those later) but I didn't really mind because

he kept her occupied and excited.

Now if I could just get the other kids (Noah especially)

to cooperate, I could do group pics, but I haven't

gotten brave enough to try yet.

But maybe, one day, I'll get around to it!

TTFN,

Not Me Monday! Get fit style!!

Welcome to Not Me Monday!

Free therapy sessions held by

MckMama!
Read on and then hop on over to see what

she and all the other moms have not done this week!

I have not been putting on weight lately. This

is supposed to be helpful to me, and it has totally not become

a weakness! I didn't take the advice on the back of the box too

far-in my defense, though, it IS there in big bold print, see??

You know you're not doing something right when you go back
for seconds on your Special K. But I wouldn't know anything
about that, ya know, cause I've never done it!
Not Me!!


In an attempt to curb my ever growning waistline, I would never
go so far as to join a place like this:

unless, of course, my MIL volunteered to keep my little ones
so that I could. Not that I would. I'm just sayin.

Armed with the knowledge that last week was my last 'free' week,
I seriously did not gorge myself all week with every single yummy
thing I could think to stuff my face with, including, but not limiting
myself to my favorites from Chili's and Olive Garden! I would never
act like a pig out of mild desperation because I knew the end of all good
food was coming. And I obviously don't have a negative attitude
towards diet and exercise. I will not have to work harder on that!

On a different note, Paul did not finally get his stitches out on
Thursday. The Dr did not give him the all clear to go back to
work today, and after having him home with me for a month, I
do not miss him terribly! I do not sort of wish that we were
indepentently wealthy so that he could be home with me all
the time!

I did not do a post everyday this weekend-a first!!! And was
not slightly disappointed that hardly anyone read them!!

I am not shamelessly pushing the weekend posts on all of you

hoping that you will go back and read them!!! Cause I would

never be so pushy! :)

Now I have to go fix the little ones lunch and go nibble on some
grass or something. The remainder of my birthday
chocolate pie is not screaming my name from the inside of
the fridge. {sigh} I won't just have to ignore it!

TTFN,