My Everything Quilt

"Destroy, O God, the dark guest within whose hidden presence makes my life a hell. Yet thou has not left me here without grace; the cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul. I thank thee that my remembrance of it is like David's sight of Goliath's sword which preached forth thy deliverance. The memory of my great sins, my many temptations, my falls, bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of thy great help, of thy support from heaven, of the great grace that saved such a wretch as I am. There is no treasure so wonderful as that continuous experience of thy grace toward me which alone can subdue the risings of sin within: give me more of it." ~from The Valley of Vision

"His humble, grateful, confessional, and intercessory prayer life kept him in a close relationship with his Lord and drove every aspect of his private thoughts and public ministry." ~ John Newton-From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken What a testimony! The book is a biography of Newton, not just the song "Amazing Grace." However, the true story of "Amazing Grace" told in the book is interesting, to say the least.

May the mind of Christ my Savior Live in me from day to day By His love and power controlling All I do and say May the Word of God dwell richly In my heart from hour to hour So that all may see I triumph Only through His power May the love of Jesus fill me As the waters fill the sea Him exalting, self abasing This is victory May I run the race before me Strong and brave to face the foe Looking only unto Jesus As I onward go ~Arthur Gould/Kate Wilkinson

Rebekah now has 2 degrees, Deborah has 1 and is married, Leah has a degree and is married, and Hannah will graduate college in December. Moriah will be a senior in high school in the fall, so my homeschooling days are basically over. Now it is finally time for the clean out of home school stuff. I saved every paper, and I mean every paper, my girls wrote on during their years of homeschool. I am not just talking research type papers, I am talking daily work, tests, learning to write, rewrites, book reports, schedules, you name it-if they wrote on it, I saved it. I have rather enjoyed it, to be honest.  Reliving those days through these papers I realized just how busy I really was then. I did a lot of work in those days! Teaching, planning, making up tests, grading papers, not to mention taking care of the ones not old enough for school. Then there was the housework, cooking, taking girls to gymnastics, or dance; the occasional field trips, doctors appointments (and with 5 ...

Sweet Claire is now one year old! My goodness, I thought the saying "time flies" was true when raising my own children, but watching these grandbabies grow up it is unbelievable how fast "time flies." Claire is such a precious little thing. She is just now taking those much anticipated first steps. She is also becoming more vocal these days! She lets you know she wants something, and now! It is so fun to watch Amelia with Claire. But I must admit sometimes I fear for the poor little thing! Amelia's love can sometimes be life-threatening, if you know what I mean! But it is very cute to see Amelia try to help Claire along, and Claire is trying her best to keep up! Happy Birthday, sweet Claire! This Gramma loves you very much, little Sugar Bug!