To You, Dear Jesus!

We know that You have the victory & that if we want it & we want Thy Will & we surrender to Thee, then the Enemy can't have the victory, he can't have us or our usefulness or anything about us, any part of us, because You are standing there, Lord, just like You told the Apostle Peter, & praying for us that our faith fail not. You're strengthening us so that we can in turn strengthen others, & comfort others with the comfort wherewith we are comforted.

Thank You for the Love You've given me. Thank You for uniting with my spirit, and becoming one with me. I love You, Jesus! You're my all in all. You're my everything. You're the only thing I have to hang on to, to cling to — and I do. I cling to You desperately! Without You, without the breath of Your life, without the breath of Your Spirit, I know that I am absolutely nothing. Without You to hang on to, I'm nothing. There's nothing there without You. You're everything; I'm nothing. I'm nothing but a tool and a channel. I exist only to hold You, and to love You.

I thank You, Jesus, not only for the beautiful joys that You give me, but also for the tears of sorrow that You bring my way.

Thank You for the difficult times, for they drive me to Your breast and I cling to You and You comfort me. They bring me to know You — to abandon my will and my life to You. I can cling to You and You will hold me, no matter what sorrows or storms come my way. I thank You for this unchangeable faith that You give, because You promised it. You told me that You would always be there, and You've never, ever failed me. I thank You, my sweet Lord!

Thank You for all You've given me — not only Your Love, but Your life. I praise You and I rejoice that I can love You so completely, with every fiber of my being. With my very life I can love You. This is my praise to You — my life in Your hands. I love how You fashion me. I love to feel the tenderness of Your touch as it molds me. I rejoice to do Your will, O my Lord, I rejoice! For it is a gift of Your Love to me. As I melt into Your will and into Your Love, You give me such sweet satisfaction that my life becomes praise to You!

Thank You for wonderful You, Jesus! Thank You that I can cherish You and hold You and give You my heart, my mind, my spirit, my all. Thank You that I can be one with You! Thank You that I can have Your mind, the mind of Christ. Thank You, Jesus, that Your Love constrains me. Thank You so much, Jesus!

Happy 7th Anniversary

"I wish I could tell you what it means to have your love, what it means to know you're always there and that you'll always care....for you are the best part of all that's near and dear to me, and I love you with all my heart...more each day, more each year. Happy Anniversary!"

That's what Mike wrote for me today, isn't he the sweetest? All I can say is "thank you" a hundred times over again and again, thank you for loving me and always being there fo me, I love you too sweetie!


Being the great cook he is, Mike cooked this wonderful meal for me and we invited Tracy, Joan and Victoria to have dinner with us on the deck since it was all of our day off. Mike and me aren't to fond of pictures so we escaped this photo hee-hee! I just wanted to make sure I got a shot of the lovly meal Mike prepared for us, nice no?

Cookout

I'm a little late in posting these pictures, there from our BBQ/cookout we had last family day. Andre built a camp fire in the back yard and the kids got to roast hotdogs and marshmallows, while Simon grilled some hamburgers on the deck and we all enjoyed a wonderful feast.


Mike and Tracy enjoying their food after playing some ball
Jazz tired after a long day and some good food

Shawn chowing down his hotdog

He has such a beautiful smile no?
Devin seemed to like his marshmallows half burnt and half raw
I think Andre looks rougedly cute in this photo

Two peas in a pod

Resently Devin and Kay-Lee have begun playing these "daddy and mommy" games together and their conversations make for some pretty funny listening. I could just picture Mike and myself having this same discussion....

Kay-Lee: Here we are at the hotel

Devin: Which bed should the kids go on?

Kay-Lee: I need to put the baby to sleep, he's crying (makes crying noises)

Devin: Sweetie poo, can I wrestle with the kids?

Kay-Lee: Well ok, just don't hurt them

Devin begins to throw the stuffed animals (children) in the air and shake them around.

Kay-Lee: Hunny you need to stop, your being to rough with the kids!


Such a mother's heart no? ha! Well, I'm happy they keep each other company and they have a lot of fun together. I really enjoy taking care of them, such sweeties!

Kid fun

Here's the kids at "snake lake" as they've named it. It really is nothing more the a mud filled pond with all sorts of yucky creepy crawlys living therein. (Mother's worse nightmare ha!) But there's a little boat that they like to ride in and they have fun exploring the area with the teens.





Since Tracy arrived the kids have enjoyed learning to play soccer, they have these big games in the afternoon and play for hours. It's a great way to get out their energy and I've noticed Devin sleeping better at night...yeay!


What was Devin thinking here I don't know. But I thought it was a good shot taken by one of the teen girls. "Watch out Devin! Here comes Tracy!"

more pictures

Here's my 1st grade group! Aren't the precious....


.....or are they...hmmm...yes my little angels are rascals too



Aime and Kay-Lee...aren't they to cute?
Fun in the sun

Finally...pictures!!!

We have some new faces around here, their so cute and funny. Here's Katrina being the motherly 10 yr. old that she is.


Kids jumping rope...they are having so much more fun now that there's more kids to play with


James playing soccer


Beautiful Kay-Lee


Girls having fun outside
Here comes the crazyness....


..."you talking about me?"

Yes...and you too!

In full bloom

Things have been so busy around here lately I haven't had time to get on and blog. We've been having a lot of changes with the arrival of Tracy and Joans team, working out new schedules, arranging school groups, people trying to find their "knack" in the home , working out who's doing what and when. It's all very crazy but exciting. I'm so glad to have them here! Things have started to settle down a bit now and I've been getting back in the groove of teaching with an extra pupil...Kay-Lee who's 5. Devin is very happy to have someone else in the class and they get along great, it's so cute to see them work and play together.
Also I've been feeling a lot better (thank you for keeping me in our prayers) and have begun to really enjoy spring time, I go outside and the trees are in full bloom, the grass is growing and it's nice and warm. So beautiful! Here's a few shots of our trees and flowers. I need to enjoy this weather while it lasts as it gets SOooooo very hot here in the summer, so these days are very enjoyable.

The Obedience factor

I started reading the Art of war pt.7 today and it's SO good and just what I need right now. Here's a few quotes that really spoke to me.

(Jesus continues :) Let's talk for a minute about afflictions and illnesses that I allow. You often hear Me talk about how in your weakness I become strong, and when you're weakest in the flesh you're strongest in the spirit‚ and so forth. That can seem to conflict with the idea of keeping yourself strong physically to fight spiritual battles.

The key to understanding is this: It's more about your obedience, about you doing your part, than it is about how your body is actually doing, that makes the difference to your ability to fight spiritually.

If you are trying to keep the rules of godly, healthy living, but I allow you to get sick because I want you to slow down, or because I need to humble you, or because there's something I want to show you, then it may be a little tougher on your flesh than usual to fight the spiritual battle. However‚ you will have sufficient strength to do so, because you are in My will, because you are being obedient, and because you are in the right spiritual "position," even though your body isn't in top shape.

Whereas, if you've been neglecting your health, if you've been disobedient‚ if you've been "doing your own thing" and straying from My side, and that's the reason for your sickness or affliction, then you can't expect the same level of "strength through weakness" or of My power coming through and overriding your own weakness, or enabling you to fight the spiritual battles as well as you could otherwise. You bear more of the burden of responsibility in that case, and you will struggle more, and it will take longer and be more difficult for you, because your flesh is weak and that has also weakened your spirit in that case, because of the obedience/disobedience factor.

Obedience is really what a lot of the parallel wars principle comes down to. It's not possible for you to be perfect in the spirit, use all the weapons in every battle, and "score" perfectly on the spiritual fighting scale. It's also not possible for you to be perfect in the physical warfare. You will sometimes fall short on both. But the important thing is that you're being obedient. That's what I ask of you