Lovin It

Just found out that Piano Craft here in town does piano tunings. I'm sooo looking forward to getting my upright 1950's Steinway tuned!! I'm hoping that a couple of online jobs that I've been picking up will cover that soon.

I love going into their store to mess around on their instruments. Pianos are the love of my life. There's very little as thrill as sitting down at a gorgeous instrument and hearing yourself make music. It makes me want to cry when I hear Leibestraum coming out of the back of massive Steinway or Kawai. *happy sigh*

Anywho, just thrilled to find a local tuner, and thought I'd share. :)

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With a hat that size, you will have no trouble

Totally Cool

Found a cool dealio. 'tis a flocking overlay 60x60 on www.become.com. Basically, a clear tablecloth that has snowflakes all over it so you can put it over whatever color you want and it looks fantastic. Neat, huh?

Same site also had red poppy paintings with pastels...you know how hard it is to find poppies in pastels? Poppies are more popularly painted in bold colors, so, being a pastel lover AND a poppy lover doesn't always work out so hot.

Another cool product is the over armchair table that you can use as a desk or tv tray for your armchair. It's pretty AND convenient. How do you like them apples??

On an entirely different note; I've yet to discover a word-counter for blogspot. It's slightly annoying.

So I just keep typing.

Over and out.

Back To...This...I guess

So I'm coming back to this blog. I left it a while back, because I was sick of the email address it was attached to, but lately I've been logging in a lot, so I may as well occasionally post here.

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Have a new favorite recipe:

Mocha Truffle Cookies

They. Are. Amazing.

I mean, wow. I've had a sugar headache for the last 48 hours because I just can't stay out of them. I'm SO glad I thought to use DECAF instant coffee, 'cause I wouldn't have slept last night if I hadn't.

I also have a new favorite sugar cookie recipe, but I'll post that one later.

TTYL!

Life, In General

Ethan with a rose from our bush out front. It grows some pretty amazing flowers:

Altering Jana's dress for Jason and Toni's wedding next weekend:

Ethan, pretending to be grown up and doing school with the kids:

Ethan, after deciding it was too much work to be grown up and settling into the Ergo to "hang out" with me:

Nathanael, not enjoying school:

Tyana and a very sleepy Eilis:

Weeeeeee.

SO Becca's married and on her honeymoon in FL, and Jase and Toni are down to 16 days.... eeeesh. Toni keeps the countdown in her FB statuses, so everybody's pretty much perpetually aware. It's starting to be stressful...

Aaron and Jenna have a countdown, but I don't have it counted...

Cory and Taylor are engaged! As of last night... Congrats to them! So cool. :-D Get to add another countdown to my list soon.

I suddenly do not have time to finish this post...so I'm posting it. God bless.

There's no combination of words...

...I could put on the back of a post card...

I think I'm gonna quit blogging more often. I quit for a couple months, then started again and instantly had a flood of notes and people saying "I saw your blog this week!" It's like I've been resurrected or something, and my throngs of followers are singing in the streets...

Yeah right.

So never mind that. I don't really know who reads (cept you, Lauri. Love you :D) and it doesn't really matter. Blogging is more like scrapbooking. You look back over a blog and find memories that you forgot you made, and blessings you forgot you were blessed with. "Like a shoebox of photographs with sepiatone loving."

+++++++++++

So this morning I needed to get to the church and the post office, but both vans were somewhat dissasembled, so I ended up tagging along with Aaron for the morning. Drove through Sonic and went all over M-field. I thought I pretty much new this town, but I managed to go to two places I'd never been this morning. Wierd.

Then I came home, I thought for the afternoon, but I ended up leaving again almost instantly to go play volleyball with Aaron, Josh, Tyana and Nate in Nate's back yard. Got the tiniest bit of a sunburn that has my face all itchy and doubled my freckle population, spent time laying under a tree watching the clouds roll past, and played 2 on 2 for about 2 hours. After that Aaron dropped me off at the church so I could teach, then we had children's choir, then church, then everybody to McDonald's for ice cream, then home, then a random movie that was shockingly pro-family and pro-life (Bella), but rather boring.

And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone
When the morning light sings
And brings new things
For tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too
Too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
I was somewhere in between

xoxoxoxoxoxox


So now, Here I sit, and I want Taco Bell, and my face itches, and I've got Psalm 23 going through my head over and over because we memorized it tonight as part of our study on Jehovah-Rophe (The Lord Our Shepherd) and I *really* need to go to bed, but my hair is wet and I hate going to bed with wet hair....

And my fonts aren't working. I can't get my italics to turn off....hmm.

Alright. Enough. I'm rambling. Sorry.

<3
-Joanna

Starting Today

...I'm not gonna waste another moment....


Okay, so I probably will, but I'm so tired of never doing things that last. There's plenty I could do that would actually make a difference in shaping my tomorrows, but I get stuck just getting by...

Ah well. 'tis a lesson that very few seem to learn. Sometimes life just happens to people and they find themselves 'there', but some people never happen to life. I want so bad to make a difference, to keep moving forward, to have the life that a Christian is supposed to live: a living, breathing testimony of Christ.

-----------

I'm sitting at orchestra, in the corner of the stage by the piano. I have to play for another class in about 13 minutes. It's actually my favorite class to play for; all the 11-15 year olds. They're good enough to stay together and have good tone, but still elementary enough that they get given relatively simple music. They sound SO good, and have so much fun... it's awesome.

They're supposed to perform tomorrow, but it's an outdoor performance, so unless the forcast clears up we'll be canceling. Won't know for sure until 7:30 tomorrow morning when Kathy sends out a final decission. Hate being in limbo like that, but it can't be helped 'cause Jesus controls the rain, not me.

I should hope that it'll rain, 'cause I have an awful lot to do tonight and tomorrow, but I *really* love this performance every year. The kids get to dress in wild colors and stands get knocked over by the wind and music blows off the stage and I have to stand at a keyboard that inevitably is turned up so loud that it's the only thing people can hear, but being out in the sunshine with little kids and their instruments is a delight.

------------------------

Little Donny just came up to me to ask if I knew where Uriah was. He's a funny little kid that never stops talking or moving and has little glasses that he's forever scrunching his nose to keep in place. He started to call me "teacher," then stopped and thought for a minute, and actually remember my name! Generally I'm either "teacher" or "the piano person" around here...

*****************

Nancy flew out to FL this morning and abandoned me with Krista for the Concert Choir rehearsal. I could hate her for that if I didn't love her so much... Krista pulled Praise His Holy Name out, which I haven't played since October, and I butchered it, and I had to sight-read the intire Irving Berlin medley 'cause they were short on music when it got handed out last month, so I've never even "one-fingered" it. eeek. it was cool though. The kids are really timid with it, but as soon as we hit the 'God Bless America' at the end they really step up and make it happen. They're sounding pretty incredible. I'm really looking forward to the year-end concer that we're doing at Evangle in a couple weeks, except for the part where I have to give a speech with Suzie at the end 'cause we're the two assistant teachers who started with the orchestra in 1998.

It was so crazy back then...our little 15 member choir, meeting in the back room and having our recitals in the fellowship hall... we cellos had to sit on a slanted floor, and it made it pretty difficult. Joe was forever teasing me for stabbing him with my bow, but we were so cramped that I couldn't really help it...





Mk, better run for now. The kids are gathering on stage and will need their tuning notes in about 30 seconds...bye for now!
-Joanna

Absolute Insanity

I'm currently on a baking craze in honor of my best friend's bridal shower on Saturday eveing. I'm in charge of desserts for something between 40 and 100 people... and that means that I'm baking for 100 and expect left-overs. ;-) Thus far I have three layers of devil's food cake, three layers of white chocolate-pecan cake and 40 chiffon tea cakes in the freezer, awaiting the day of frostment.

(posting interrupted here for the sake of a dirty diaper that just came to me bearing a beautiful little boy with brown curls and dark grey eyes)

Today I'm planning on adding 4 layers of peanut butter cake to the collection, tonight after church I'll add two layers of dark chocolate-apricot cake, and tomorrow... I don't know what I'll do. I really can't make the frostings and fillings yet, and I can't freeze the orange pound cake that has to be made, so I guess I'll spend tomorrow sewing.



(Becca and I, August 2005. Our first "best friends" picture)

(Becca and I, December 2008)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This morning Mom headed out pretty early with Daniel, Micah, Rachel, Nathanael and Benjamin. Benjamin has an eye appointment, (he's the last of the kids that Mom and Dad feel are in need of glasses. The new insurance plan has gotten a lot of weight off of their minds.) Nathanael went along for the ride and the three older kids are spending the day at our farm with Dan, putting the last of the flooring in the bedrooms and doing whatever other handywork needs to be done. The sinks and toilets and ceiling fans have to be installed, and painting will be finished next Tuesday. The plan is to be moved by the end of June. Seems this deadline is actually one that is essential to life, so it might just actually happen.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Eilis is coming over for the afternoon while her Mommy goes into town for an ultrasound... which, btw, JOSH AND TYANA ARE EXPECTING ANOTHER BABY! Today's ultrasound will determine due-date...we're expecting it to be rather uncomfortably close to Aaron's wedding date in November...we'll see though. :-)

-----------------------------------------------------

But when we look at each other so
Then we feel how little we know; -S Teasdale

Today I'm giving my first piano lesson to Shaiya. She contacted me last week and will be taking lessons before children's choir every Wednesday afternoon. I don't like teaching, but with orchestra going on summer break next week I'll be losing my one steady source of income until October. Teaching a lesson a week won't exactly be equal to what I make through the winter, but it's better then nothing. I suppose I'll do a little bit of actual advertising in the next couple weeks and see if I can't fill two or three more slots on Wednesday afternoons. Despite the fact that I thoroughly dislike it, teaching is a pretty simple way to supplement any budget, and since the Lord has dropped a student in my lap I may as well further the cause, no?

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Alrighty, well, lunch must be made, children must be put to bed for naps, bread must be baked, peanut butter cakes put together and gotten in the freezer, first lesson music rounded up, baths given, children dressed for church, and etc. Duty calls and since duty keeps the mind busy, and duty is enjoyable, it's a welcome call.

God bless and keep you.
-Joanna


No later light has lighten'd up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me;
All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given,
All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.

But when the days of golden dreams had perish'd,
And even Despair was powerless to destroy;
Then did I learn how existence could be cherish'd,
Strengthen'd and fed without the aid of joy. -E Bronte
...and I know the river is wide....

Sunday evening...

I'm really bad at the blogging thing. I can't believe I used to update a blog every single day.

I suppose I could just update it like I do my facebook statuses.

Joanna is drinking Diet Dr. Pepper for the first time in a couple years and actually enjoying it.

Joanna is listening to the Marshalls sing "I'm in the Savior's Hand, He's in the Father's"

Joanna wishes she didn't have so much writing to do tonight so she could play the piano.

Joanna's little brother is parading around the living room in Rachel's black heels 'cause his feet are the same size as hers.

Joanna hates her dial up connection 'cause it won't let her load more then one page at a time.

Joanna is trying to remember what all she had for this month's Beauty of Holiness, but it isn't working very well.

Joanna is digging through her journal to find what the Lord had for her this month.

Joanna has random lyrics running through her head and mixing themselves up. "I wanna live for love, I wanna live for you and me...wash away the thoughts inside...you have suffered enough and warred with yourself it's time that you won...

*sigh.


It's gonna be a long evening. Unless I quit writing and bake cookies and play piano, but I can't really do that. :-P

-Joanna

...thought I was strong without you...
...You are the air that I breathe, you are the ground beneath my feet...

Worst is the waiting...

So it's been a long week.

Yeah.

I'm tired.

If there were any way to keep a record of every little thing the Lord does, and every time He has a verse for a moment of desperation, and every time He puts a song on a child's heart that speaks more to those listening then to the child itself, then "could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the sky of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean fry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky."

Little things, beautiful things, simple things remind me of my Savior's love, until I get caught up in myself. Wednesday evening we watched "St. John In Exile" and I skipped out on the first half 'cause I was tired and I'd seen it so many times... but I ended up sitting through the second part and, as always, God used it. I was so torn up inside when John told of Peter's wife being crucified and him crying out "oh thou beloved, remember Christ!" All the discontent and selfish, demanding filth of my heart seemed to be echoing in my head for the next several hours. I want to encourage and uplift those around me, but instead of crying out "remember Christ!" I say "look at me! give me more!"

Oh to be so full of Christ that I never feel the emptiness that pushes me toward begging for attention and craving human love. Oh to be so focused on Him that I feel drawn only toward Him, and never toward the wreck of humanity.

I'm too tired to be writing right now. I'm gonna come across as an emo and drag people down, again... but lift your eyes unto the hills and remember Christ. No cross is so heavy that His strength cannot lift it through you, no night is so dark that it will prevent His dawn from coming, no ocean so rough that He work in you to let you walk on water.

Remember Christ.

-Joanna


"I come alive somehow..."

For Beauty Of Holiness

Something I wrote for my other blog earlier this week. I need to get it on here so I don't lose it, but it's not what I want it to be and I'm too tired to rewrite at the moment. As always, I need to simplify and somehow condense, but, as you know, I'm not good at simple or condensed...much less both at the same time. :-/


Does God ever ask more than we are capable of bearing? People throw around the saying "God only gives what we can handle" as if it's scripture, but is it accurate?

I was listening in on a recent discussion on this point, amongst my Mom and a group of other women. They all have heard that saying as meaning "God will only throw things at you if He knows you're strong enough to cope with it," whereas I've always heard it as "God will never ask anything of you if He does not also offer the grace and strength you need to grow through it."

There's a BIG difference. In it's literal sense (the one my mind always avoided) it is way off. God doesn't promise to protect us from anything that might possibly push us beyond our own limits, but He promises to test and try us, meaning He will take us beyond ourselves so that we have to fall on His grace and let Him stretch us.

Will He break us? Maybe...but that depends on our response, not on the level of the trial. He has promised to provide every need, and if we find ourselves desperate and "ready to snap," then I PROMISE you, He has grace and strength waiting for us to accept in order to prevent the shattering. To keep trying to make it on our own is a pretty sure-fired way to get ourselves broken.

But don't think that being broken means you're destroyed. There will be times when we fail to walk in God's grace and will find ourselves in pieces in the dirt, but God will pick up the pieces and reuse and reshape until we're more beautiful then ever before. There will be times when He has to completely remake us by taking us back to dust, mixing and molding and heating all over again, but no matter how many times He has to stretch us or remake us, He will provide the strength we need to endure.

So don't look at your trials as something to cope through, look at them as an opportunity to access more grace and find Christ's love deeper and fuller then you ever have before. Be flexible and let Him stretch you, and hopefully you'll avoid the breaks that come from being brittle and unteachable.

Wednesday

Jesus, I've forgotten the words that You have spoken
Promises that burned within my heart have now grown dim
With a doubting heart I follow the paths of earthly wisdom
Forgive me for my unbelief
Renew the fire again

Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy on me

I have built an altar where I worship things of men
I have taken journeys that have drawn me far from You
Now I am returning to Your mercies ever flowing
Pardon my transgressions
Help me love You again

Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy on me

I have longed to know You and Your tender mercies
Like a river of forgiveness ever flowing without end
I bow my heart before You in the goodness of Your presence
Your grace forever shining
Like a beacon in the night

Lord have mercy on me...

Blogging

I've not truly blogged in a very long while, and I don't even know if more than one or two people ever even check this site, but since it's here, I guess I may as well do an update on life.

This is where you need one of those stupid surveys with a bajillion random questions that nobody really cares to read, but if they did they'd know everything about you, from your deepest fears to whether you fold or roll you socks...But I don't have one with me at the moment, and I wouldn't want to bore you with laundry details, so I'll just try to fill in the major points of my life as of April 14th, 2009.

I was just going through my flair collection on facebook and noticing how wierdly defining those silly buttons are. I mean, c'mon. What kind of assortment is made up of giraffes, purple butterflies, scripture verses, song lyrics, piano keys, rainy days, emo cartoons and high heeled shoes? Yet somehow...that's me.

I know. I'm crazy.

But you know what else I know? I know that my Jesus loves me. My world turns upside down every other day, and I find my feet in mid air and my heart on the ground while my head is spinning through the clouds, but no matter how scattered or worried or confused I am, my Jesus loves me. I've got two brothers and my best friend getting married in the next 7 months and I'll be seeing so much less of them, and missing them soo much, but my Jesus will still be every bit us much here as He ever has been. I'm too busy to be fitting my transcription school into my life, so I'm missing every deadline I've ever set for myself, but my Jesus has other plans for my time, and other things for me to be doing, so it's okay.

So, main point of my life? Jesus is. He is forever. He is mine. He is beautiful.

Other, less important points include funny little details about bridal showers and wildflowers, glasses and counted cross-stitch, babies and nail polish, china bells and bits of shell, sunshine and satin dresses, dogs and hats and kittens that can't be found, chocolates and jelly beans, dull siscors and purple thread, Mozart and blinding love, redheads and starry skies...

And life goes on. Bits of beauty in everything, Christ's love everywhere, love and music, friends and faith at every turn. Life is wonderful. God is good. I'm overflowing with the joy of His salvation today, and I want every person who reads this to know that I am His and He is mine. Tomorrow, if I start moping, send me back to this. Remind me that my life is so full of His blessing that I have no reason to be less then delightedly grateful. <3

God bless you and keep you. He loves you.
-Joanna Renae

and seasons are changing
and waves are crashing
and stars are falling ..

... all for us

Our Wednesday night Bible study has Dad taking us through the names of God as they appear through the Old Testament. For one of the studies this month we did a review of the five names we had learned, and Dad had the congregation choose hymns that went with each name as we reviewed them.

The first was Elohim, which literally means "God," but is used as "Creator" in Genesis 1, and the hymn that accompanied it was "For The Beauty Of The Earth"

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

For Thyself, best gift divine!
To our race so freely given;
For that great, great love of Thine
Peace on earth and joy in heaven

Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise!


Then the second was Adonai, which is "Lord and Master" as we find in Genesis 15, when God gives the promise of Isaac to Abram. It was sooo neat when Dad spoke on that, because he brought out that God is Lord of all events, and even when we take things into our own hands and cause there to be Ishmaels, the Lord can still create our Isaacs, and make room for our Ishmaels!

But anyway, the song with Adonai was "I Surrender All", which commits absolutely everything we are to the Lordship of Christ:

All to Jesus I surrender
Lord I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Next was El Elyon, which means "Most High God" and was shown in Genesis 14 when Abram's small troop defeated those who worshiped El, which is simply, "God". We followed that name with the hymn "Crown Him With Many Crowns"

Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon His throne ;
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but it's own!
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of Him who died for thee.
And hail Him as thy matchless
King through all eternity.

When Dad asked for the definition of "El Elyon" he got a couple of replies as "Deliverer" which led to an interesting thought. Because El Elyon "delivered" the Amorites into the hand of Abram and his allies, God was the "Deliverer," but it was in a different way than we usually refer to Him. Whereas we tend to think of Him as the one who sets us free, He is also a God of war, who delivers our enemies into our hands when we are active in the war for the souls. The verse "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" doesn't meant that the gates of Hell will come and attack the church, but rather that the church, when taking the offensive, will overcome the strongholds of Satan.

Christianity is not to cause us to live in a passive stance, or even to live in the defensive, ready to ward off all evil attackers, but Christ empowers us to search and destroy, and to occupy. With El Elyon, the Almighty God, as our "deliverer" we can have victory over our own flesh, and over the powers of the world.

What are we at now, number 4? That would be El Shaddai, which means "God Almighty," and we looked at that name in Genesis 17, where God was making a covenant with Abram. That led to the song "Immortal, Invisible"

Immortal, Invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, Most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, Victorious, Thy great name we praise.

And the final point of the evening was "Jehovah," which is the "I am, that I am" in Exodus 4, and we see as the ever-present keeper of the covenant. Never "I was" or "I will be," but "I AM." Guess what went with that? "Yesterday, Today, Forever":

Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same;
All may change, but Jesus never, glory to His name!

Okay, so....

The last two months I've hit the last couple days of the month and panicked 'cause I had absolutely nothing to post on Beauty Of Holiness.

I don't want to do that again.

Soooo..... From here on out, every time the Lord tosses me a morsel that I can turn into something devotional/testimony-ish that would be easy for younger girls to process, I'm gonna post it here so that it's ready and thoroughly thought out by the time I'm called upon to use it. I could just save it in files, but I tend to do way better if I know there's a chance of someone actually reading...

I've been wondering about the blog project. I seem to be in a little over my head with it. Sounds silly to be saying about something so miniscule, but somehow it overwhelms to have placed myself in a position where I'm expected to minister. I'm a little worried that I'm gonna turn myself into a mechanical parrot, just spewing out the same little bits of cliche over and over again, but I pray that it's never so.

For those of you who read here, please pray that my Jesus will keep this alive for me. That He'll give me something new and precious to share, and that I'll never let it become a platform for opinions, or self-glorification. Please also pray that He'll help me be concise, and keep it simple and entertaining. I want my girls to read without feeling belittled or babied, and yet, to be able to feast without spending hours picking their way through a bunch of confused or overly complicated thoughts....

Okay.

So, you can stop reading now if you want, as the rest is simply thought storage. :-)


Keeping The Lamp

In Exodus chapter 27 there's this little bitty, 2 verse command givin in the middle of chapters and chapters of extremely detailed and lengthy laws. It wouldn't seem to be much of anything, but it came with a promise: the promise of making a difference.

There were four little sets of words in that command that caught my attention. You read it, and pick out your four favorites, then we'll see how close we were:

Exodus 27:20-21 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

Have your list? Okie dokie, here's mine:

1. Pure oil.
2. To burn always.
3. Evening and morning.
4. A statute forever.

Obviously when we talk about light, one of the first things we think of is our testimony. It's compared to a light all the time. Matthew 5 probably has the most famous example with "let your light so shine." So what makes the brightest flame? I'll tell you- The best fuel. Keep the dirt and the grime and even the innocent, but useless, water out of your oil. Fill yourself with what is beautiful and pure so that the flame of Christ has only what is good and excellent to feed off of. Only allow the best of the best in your heart. That's the "pure oil."

Next is the "burn always." There's never ever a time when you're not supposed to be shining. Even in our own homes, or when we're completely alone, if we stop living as a testimony of Him then we'll miss oppourtunity to worship Him, and oppourtunity to be made more beautiful by Him. It's easy to make an effort that's gonna impress someone else, but make an effort that's only for Him, and see how much more wonderful it is.

"Evening and morning." Please don't roll your eyes and say "oh noooo. Here comes another "devotions" lecture." I'm not talking about regimented, planned, Bible studies that you have to do every morning and every night in order to be a "good Christian." What I AM talking about is keeping yourself from becoming a "stench" to the Lord. If the wick isn't trimmed and maintained properly then the lamp will start giving off a horrible, thick, sooty smoke. It's seriously chokable. Have you ever been in a room full of untrimmed lanterns? I have...it's not nice. You can't breathe, and your eyes sting from the contaminated air. Honestly, it's almost better to be in the dark.

You have to keep yourself perpetually in contact with the Lord to burn in the most pure way possible. The morning and evening stated in the command to the Israelites was to ensure that the lamp always burned how it was supposed to. In life it might be morning and evening, it might be once a day, it might be once an hour, and sometimes it might even be once a second, but keep your lamp maintained, no matter what.

The last of my favorite phrases is "A statute forever." Remember when we talked about Solomon and Ecclesiastes? Remember that when it all came down to it, all that would really last was the believing and fearing of the Lord? Well, God writes the testimonies of His children in the book of life. When you believe, when you burn bright and clear, when you live your life in a way that is a perpetual testimony, it last forever. God makes those moments into eternal acts of praise. Even if we can't see it now, He remembers.

That is a promise. That is a reward worth working toward.

The Happy Couples...

So, I have these two brothers:

See? Aren't they cute? That's Aaron on the left (he's 20) and Jason in the middle (he's 24) and me on the right. They're awesome guys, and I love them to death.

This summer they decided they needed girl friends... 'cause sisters aren't good enough. LOL. No really, God kinda dropped girls on them out of nowhere. They'd both given their futures to the Lord had settled in to wait for who He had for them.

SO, in April, I was hanging out with a friend of mine, Antonia, and it hit me that she and Jason would be wonderful together. I started scheming right then and there, and even though they had never met, I was dead set on them getting together. I told Jessi about it and she started praying for them, even though it was still just an idea.

Then I introduced them through Facebook, after talking them up to each other as much as possible. It was an instant click. Withing several weeks of talking, Jason was discussing it with Mom and Dad, then called her Dad, and very soon after he made the trip to meet her in real life.

Here they are together, absolutely in love:


Then there's Jenna. Aaron wasn't even thinking about trying to meet anyone. He was working, joining a basketball league, busy busy busy...

When Jenna got a Facebook. We had met her at a family camp/cofernce in NY in 2005, and they had been buddies through the week, so they instantly hit it off again as friends.


They talked a LOT...like a TON...

Aaron talked to Mom and Dad.

Aaron talked to HER dad...

Aaron drove to TN to meet her.

They're courting too. :-D
SO, this summer has been busy and overflowing with mush, as my brothers have been falling deeper and deeper in love with their long-distance girlies...like this:


Congrats to the darlings. I'm thrilled.

~Joanna Renae

PS. Aren't the girls GORGEOUS?

Somewhere out there someone's saying a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star
And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby
It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky
Somewhere out there if love can see us through
Then we'll be together somewhere out there 
Out where dreams come true

Eilis Rose

Eilis Rose (ayy-lish rose) was born on September 22nd, 2008, at 4:30am.

Psalm 29:2

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness...


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Lately I've been noticing the lack of Christian encouragement that my younger sisters get when they look anywhere besides our own home, and feeling like I might ought to try to do something about it. I tried to think back and see where and what I had when I as 12-14, and I remembered that at one point we had three or four newsletters/magazines coming in from girls all over the nation who were trying to encourage and uplift each other. A couple of them quit publishing, and the rest...I don't know what happened to. In anycase, we're down to one lonely little magazine that comes every other month and that doesn't exactly line up with what we believe and teach our girls, though it's sweet and pretty.

SO... no. I'm not starting a magazine. hehehe. What I am doing, though, is starting a blog. Original, huh? I've written to a lot of the older girls I know, and with their help, on the first of each month, I will publish a... um.... something. On a blog. For girls. Any girls.

You know what? Anyone who wants to can read it, and I'm sure anyone can find SOMETHING there to bless them. When people are sharing testimonies and telling stories about their Savior then other Christian's can't help being blessed, right?

Okay, to the point. The site is http://www.Psalms29vs2.blogspot.com. It's not "officially" ready for October yet, but if you check on Oct 1st there will be an index of "articles" for the month. :-) I hope it's a blessing. Love you guys!

P.S. If any of my old readers have anything they'd like contribute then I'd LOVE the help! I'm getting the feeling that this could get overwhelming really quickly...