Great song

Tonight when I bought groceries, I picked up a new worship CD. It was in a clearance bin. I'm always looking for good worship music, so this one struck my fancy. One of the songs on it really hit home tonight. It's Mark Schultz's "Clean Hands". This is the video. The lyrics are below. It's what Larry calls a "7-11" song....meaning that the same 7 words are sung 11 times in a row. ha ha! It's more than 7 words long, but it does repeat the chorus over & over. I love the meaning of it, though, so I don't mind the repetition.



The video says that it's by Chris Tomlin, but the version I have is Mark Schultz. I realize you can read the lyrics on the video, but a few people who read my blog are still on dial up (hi mom!) so they can't see the video. For those folks, here are the lyrics:

We bow our Hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob

We bow our Hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast out our idols

So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
Oh God of Jacob

We bow our hearts to you

Thurs Jan 29

::blink::
The month is gone. I can't believe that it's already been a month since 2009 began. And I feel like I just blinked & it was over. Wow.

I haven't "really" blogged in a while. I promise to (attempt to) do better in the coming week. We've just had a lot going on this week, so I haven't been feeling like posting. I'll catch everyone up soon!

Beautiful!

I love this! It's a letter from the Bush twins to Obama's daughters. No matter who you voted for, the sweetness of this video will not be lost on you!

Driving Lessons & Pinewood Derby Racing & Diamonds

When I was about 13 or 14, my dad put me behind the wheel of his truck for the first time & said I needed to start learning to drive. Now mind you, we lived in the middle of no where, so driving around in a pasture was not a big deal. I had ZERO chance of running into something or running over someone, so it was a good place to figure out the basics of driving. We only had standard transmission vehicles, too, so I figure if I had to start out driving a standard (which really means killing it every 6 feet for a long time!), it's best that I wasn't on a roadway to do it!

Today, my 12 1/2 year old got her first chance to do this. We went out to the lake on a whim to see how the level of the lake looked. We do this from time to time because during dry seasons, it's so low that you can see the bottoms of piers, boats sitting in mud on the dry ground, etc....and during heavy rain seasons, it's cool to see how much the water has risen. Anyway, while we were there, we were in this GIANT parking lot all by ourselves. There wasn't another soul around & I half jokingly said "Hey Savannah, want to drive?". Of course she wanted to! I got into the backseat & Larry did all the driving instruction. After slamming on the brakes the first couple of times, she got the hang of things & really did VERYYYYYYYY well. She made big circles around the parking lot for a long time with her little brother & sister making jokes in the backseat the whole time. Larry even had her drive in a straight line down a path of blacktop down the center of the parking lot to see if she could pulling off staying in a "lane". She did great! I was really proud of her, even if we were totally breaking the law by allowing a 12 yr old behind the wheel. Shhhh! :) Check out her mad driving skills!

Before the morning driving lesson, we went to Samuel's Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Race. This is his car. He called it The Patriot.

This is the group of Cub Scouts in his rank (Bear) that were racing a car. He's the 3rd one from the far end.

Each car was raced 4 times. In his four races, he got 3rd place twice & 4th place twice.

Tonight was the Pack meeting to hand out awards for this morning's race (speed, design, etc) but due to some unfortunate behavioral issues, he did not get to attend. Alas, he has a regular Scout meeting Monday night, so if he did get any awards, he will get them then.

As I mentioned in the end of my last post, I realized earlier tonight that one of the diamonds has fallen out of my wedding ring. I am sooooooo sad about this! I've had that ring on my finger for nearly 15 years now, so it feels so odd to take it off. The only times it has been off before was toward the tail-end of my first pregnancy when I was too swollen to wear it and once when we had it re-sized. I already feel naked without it! We decided it was best to take it off & not wear it until we can get it fixed. We are planning to do that for Valentine's Day. It appears that one of the little prongs that holds the diamond in is missing, so it has to have broken off & that's when the diamond fell out. Fortunately, it was one of the little diamonds on the side, not the big one in the middle, so it shouldn't cost a fortune to get it fixed....but still, it's my wedding ring! I'm just sick that it is messed up at all! 'Til it is fixed, it's locked away in our safe inside a ziploc baggie just in case any more diamonds decide to fall out! :(

The ABCs of Me

I saw this on my friend Kelley's blog & had to play along. See if you can figure out the ABCs of you.

A. Attached or single? very attached
B. Best friend? I have 3 of 'em.
C. Cake or pie? Cake, usually.
D. Dog or cat? I like them both, but I think I'm more of a dog person. I love my sweet puppy dog! (although he's 10 years old, so I'm not sure he qualifies as a "puppy")
E. Essential item? my computer, duh!
F. Favorite color? red
G. Gummy bears or worms? umm, I'm not sure. Not a huge fan of either one.
H. Hometown? The same one I live in now....which means I'm not gonna say! See, ya thought I might slip up, didn't ya?
I. Favorite indulgence? People magazine & a hot bubblebath (which I intend to do in a few minutes!)
J. January or July? January, hands down! July is HOT!
K. Kids? I have 3 & teach 12 others (this year anyway).
L. Life isn’t complete without? my husband
M. Marriage date? Aug 20, 1994
N. Number of brothers and sisters? 2 sisters
O. Oranges or apples? Depends on my mood. I like both!
P. Phobias? Going over a bridge in the car w/ my kids & trying to get everyone out & to the surface safely. Thank God they can all swim/doggy paddle enough to just about do it on their own now. This was a HUGEEEEEE fear when they were babies!!
Q. Quote? I can't think of a good one at the moment.
R. Reasons to smile? There are tons!! My husband, my home, my kids, my family, God's mercy & grace, my job...the list is lengthy!
S. Season of choice? Winter! (but I do enjoy the latter part of the Fall & early Spring, too!)
T. Travel dreams? I'm not picky. If I get to go somewhere & enjoy something beautiful with someone I love, it doesn't matter where!
U. Unknown fact about me? I *JUST* realized (like, 5 minutes ago!) that one of the little diamonds has fallen out of my wedding ring. I am soooooooo upset & am doing this goofy ABC thing to try to get it off my mind. :(
V. Vegetable? I like most vegetables.
W. Worst habit? I bite my nails.
X. X-ray or ultrasound? I have had both. Xrays of my right ankle & ultrasounds of my babies!
Y. Your favorite restaurants? Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LaHacienda
Z. Zodiac sign? Scorpio

sick folks

We went to the doc this afternoon for Samuel's ear check up. After 2 antibiotics, he's still got fluid in there. The doc said that it doesn't look "too" bad, but that he felt like we needed to go ahead & see the ENT. He prescribed another antibiotic because we all know that if he's got fluid in his ears on Friday, he'll have an infection by Saturday.....that's Murphy's law, Samuel style.

On another subject, Savannah's now feeling pukey & puney like I did last night. So far, she doesn't have fever, but I'm keeping an eye on her.

All better....well, mostly anyway!

All in all, from 2:30 yesterday afternoon til 6:00am today, I slept about 13 hours. I guess I needed it. I had a bit of fever & a funky-feeling tummy, no energy, no appetite, just a general blah feeling. Nothing really HURT, but I just didn't feel right. I am assuming I had a touch of a passing virus of some sort.

Today I'm not quite 100% better, but I do feel much better than I did yesterday. Thank goodness!