GratiTuesday: August 4th

This is one of the easiest posts of the week. God has blessed me with so many wonderful things in my life, picking something out to talk about is easy. Of course I am grateful for my daughter. She's my daughter! I think she's everything I wasn't when I was a little girl. She's all hearts, flowers, balloons ... princesses ... always thinking of others. Her heart is a mile wide. She is the best friend anyone could ask for. Really, she cares SO MUCH about other people. There's a downside to this- it's easy for her to be hurt, too. At the same time, though, those hurts have been teachable moments to show her more about Christ, and about people's need for Christ in the way some treat others. She accepted Christ as her Savior two months before her 6th birthday, and she led herself to Christ. All we done was witness it. It was a precious, precious night for our family.

This past week has been GREAT. Jackson was with one of his uncle's visiting, so it was just me and Hannah here at the house. It was so peaceful. Usually she pecks me to death wanting this, wanting that, complaining about something or another. Not Wednesday. I realized as I was doing my bible reading in the living room, how peacefully quiet it was, even with her three feet away from me in the dining room. She was playing on Pixie Hollow and was as content as she could be. It wasn't like she'd never played on that site, it was just different. We didn't even turn on the TV that day until 4pm. Thursday was the same, and Friday was very close to it. It occurred to me that this new found peace could possibly be her changing, a result of her growing up.

I told Jay in a conversation not long ago how we were on the brink of a number of accomplishments with the kids. We were close to getting on the "other side" of some issues we were trying to overcome. Little things, such as, her insistence on sugary drinks. While we were at the beach I convinced her to drink a glass of water each day to stay hydrated. She's still doing it. As a result, she's not paying as much attention to food during the day because she's able to more accurately tell when she's truly hungry or not. That's big for us, as she was continually snacking through the day, and I believe it was more from potential boredom than true hunger. She's more willing to try new foods, which has ALWAYS been a struggle. The big thing in recent weeks is her relationship with the Lord. No matter where she sits in a church service, she always makes it down to the alter to pray during invitation. That warms my heart SO much. This past week, she brought a friend with her. A friend who is new to church, no less. What a blessing it was to see her be a positive spiritual influence towards another child!

Last week, she also figured out how to make comments on blogs, so you might be seeing links to her new blog posts in the near future. She was so excited about commenting :)

Check out more Gratituesday posts on Heavenly Homemakers.

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Urban deer part one

The greatest surprise we found when we moved here was the abnormally large deer population. We live in the city, on a main road. Our house is a good way off the road, though still clearly visible. We have a neighbor that lives a nice little walk behind us, about .3 mile. She has lived here for over 40 years, and has one of the does trained to eat out of her hand. She has a LARGE yard that is very secluded. Jay was at her house a few weeks ago fixing something for her and said as they stood out on the porch talking they were watching some of the does in the lower yard running around like they were playing. Last year we had three fawns by two mothers. Each morning they would come in the back yard to eat and I would watch them play and chase each other having the best time. It is truly amazing to me, God's creation of these beautiful creatures. Yes, we are a hunting family, but that doesn't negate the appreciation of their beauty and grace.

On my birthday the herd showed back up! We've seen a doe here and there through the year, but during season, we have counted up to 14 in our back yard at one time. The one buck we've seen, and he was a BEAUTY, large, strong, awesome rack, was hit by a car last year :( We have two bucks this year! Apparently two of the three babes from last year were bucks. We also have a fawn in this bunch. I expect we're going to see a good deal more as it gets cooler and into the fall. I love my new camera and was able to catch some beautiful pictures through the back door:

This is the view from my back door. I had thrown some old tomatoes out there on the hill where the satellite is. That's where a good deal of my small fresh scraps go cause I like to watch the squirrels.

This is Jay's friend. He had an encounter with her last week. Deer have so much personality! She is very aware when someone is watching her. I thought about naming her "Moe" for her mohawk.

Here's "Bucky Jr". Isn't he gorgeous?!

Simply breathtaking. This was my greatest birthday surprise, actually being able to catch these photos of this beautiful magnificent creature.

I have more to post, but that's all for now! If you want to see more deer photos go to my Facebook page linked in the left sidebar. You'll find an album containing pictures you won't see here on the blog. Good stuff!

He left nothing undone

Joshua 11:15
"As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses."

How many of us can say that? What was the last thing the Lord told you to do, that you left undone?