Those Pills

Graham is my most inquisitive son. He's a real deep thinker, so when things don't add up, he's sure to speak up. He's also one to form convictions and stick to them...

My sister is 44. She and her husband don't have children. They decided this early on, and so my sister has pursued a career instead.

So Graham asks, "Why doesn't Aunty Bonnie have kids?"

"Well," I answer, "she and Uncle Jerry decided not to have kids. She's very busy working, so she decided to do that instead of staying at home."

"But," Graham continues, the gears are churning in his eight year old brain, "why aren't the kids just coming out of her tummy like they are with the other ladies?"

Good question, I thought, so I said, "I guess she took some pills call birth control. If you take birth control pills, then you won't get pregnant."

"Is that right?" Graham asked, "If YOU took birth control pills then we wouldn't have been born! You would stop a life from coming into this world."

"Yes," I said, "And there are a lot of people that believe that. Like Mrs. K, she agrees with you, but some other people don't. You have to decided what you believe about that. God says that children are a blessing from the Lord, but everyone needs to decide what they believe."

"Well, my wife is not taking birth control," he says, leaning back on the seat. "I want to have lots of kids."

Meanwhile, six-year-old Nathaniel has his own take on the whole situation, "I'm eating lots of those pills when I gwow up!" he says, "'cause I don't evew want to get married!"

Mosaic by Amy Grant

Win a copy of Amy Grant's new book, Mosaic

When I recently received the opportunity to review Amy Grant’s new book, Mosaic, I took it without hesitation.

Amy's ministry of music had a great affect on my early years as a Christian. Both her lyrics and her music had a way of bringing me into a deep state of worship with God. My sister and I spent countless hours singing and worshipping as together we grew in friendship and faith. Curious to know more about this famed singer, who's matured age to age, as I have, I opened the cover of her book, Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far, and began to read...

Mosaic provides a doorway into the life of an ordinary girl who found herself blessed with an extraordinary career. Like transparent glass set together piece-by-piece, Amy records bits of her life down on paper. Taking us into her world, this best-selling Christian music artist of all time, shares stories from her early years, telling us what led to both her first recording contract and concert. We also get behind the scene stories of some lyrics written, and through pieces of her life we see a different side of Amy.

Filled with pictures, this beautiful hardcover book is a keepsake for Amy Grant fans. Through it we meet her parents, her family, and her friends, along with wonderful stories about familiar people among who are George and Barbara Bush, Kevin Costner, and Billy Graham.

The stories are personal and heart-warming, but perhaps the most heart-warming to me was a journal entry I read that Amy wrote to a friend living with cancer in July 2006. Here is a portion of it from p. 179/180:

Don’t go
Not yet.
I cannot hear you say we’ll not make music on the hillside
When we are old and gray.
Or discuss our stretching skin or your gorgeous,
voluminous hair.
I so enjoy your regal face,
and the lines collecting there.

This beautiful woman—now forty-six—lives with the same concerns that many of us do, when it comes to balancing our time, accepting our aging process, and getting enough sleep. Amy writes, “Like everybody else, I wish I were in better shape or had planned an upcoming event a little more thoroughly. I wish I were neater. I wish I weighed what I weighed when I was in the thirties. But all those things are for another day. This day—at a hundred and forty-five pounds, at forty-six years old, with a few gray hairs and not quite enough sleep—this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” p. 144

If you would like a chance to win a copy of the book, go to CWO at:
http://www.christianwomenonline.net/index2.htm
I'll be giving away three books, so you have a great chance of winning.
Click the email link in the review I've written over at CWO and I'll put your name in the draw.

I heard that Shannon Woodward over at Windscraps will also be reviewing the book sometime this week at her blog, so if you're interested, you can pop in over there too!

Simplicity

I've lost that loving feeling... If you've ever been there, you'll know the one I'm talking about. You scan through the pattern books, till you see the right one. The cute teenaged model is wearing a calico jumper--and you have to have it. You scan the isles for the right spool of thread, a bargain peice of fabric and some colorful buttons. You wonder if you should forego the zipper since you remember seeing one in mom's sewing basket, that you think might work.

You finally find the fabric you love, you check the price. Seeing that it's 30% off, you hold the roll close to your chest and make your way to the cutting table.

I forgot that feeling til just this morning, when an image triggered my memories. I wonder when my daughter will sew her first apron or tote bag. I hope to share that experience with her, and fall in love with the simplicity of it, all over again.

Mommy and Nathaniel Day

Today is Mommy and Nathaniel day. He's all grown up in grade one now, and both of us are missing our alone time that we've had the last few years. He's been feeling under the weather this week, so I let him stay home today, even though he started feeling better by the time I brought the others to school.

I wanted to go to Subway for lunch, so I asked him, "Do you want to go on a date with me?"

He is so cute, but I wonder what was going through his brain when he said, "right now? But I'm still just a kid!" lol

That cute boy wants to marry me when he gets older. :) Maybe that's why I miss having him around--because we adore each other so much.

Incase you're wondering...it was roasted chicken with bacon and cheese. Light on the mustard, heavy on the mayo--the way a sandwich should be! :)