Those Chickens Are Feelin' Judged

By nature of her superb poultry showmanship skills and knowledge, Blossom2 got roped into a Dual County Poultry Judging Team.  It's basically a competition where you compete at who would be the best poultry inspector... complete with lab coats and clipboards. 

She is soooooooo thankful that someone took the time to call our county 4-H office to try to track her down.  

After months of practice inspecting interiors and exteriors of eggs, raw chicken meat parts, and live hens, it was finally the day of the State Poultry Judging competition.  

As is the case around here when it comes to events, some Blossoms are here and some Blossoms are there.  

Blossom1 stayed home to do schoolwork.  

(Boring old lady.)

Blossom3 and Blossom4 were not interested in being quiet for hours upon hours, 

but they were 100% on board for some COUSIN TIME.  

Now Blossom1 had some serious P&Q (peace and quiet) for knocking out assignments and Blossom2 could be my sole focus at her competition.   That's a pretty cool thing when you're a middle child.

The competition had intervals of inspection, scoring, and note-taking.  I worked on the grocery list and weekly menu while watching Blossom2 and whispering to my fellow 4-H mom friend/Fair lady extraordinaire.  

(We don't usually get this much time to chat.  Fair week is WAYYYYYYYY too busy for that.)

The Little Blossoms ventured out with their cousins to the Arboretum!  It's an old favorite of ours and it's been so long since we've been there!  

Childhood is calling, my friends!  

The blue skies confirm it.  

Meanwhile, back at the Ag Arena, Blossom2 was busy securing First Place Overall High Scorer and First Place Poultry Judging Team!  

To Kentucky they will go for Nationals!!  

What a banner day!  Twas truly memorable!

But the chickens are still feelin' kinda judged.

Looking Closer; Seeing Something New

Reading in the morning stillness, I stumbled across a verse I'd hadn't really noticed on my previous trips through the book of Job.  I've recently gained a fresh perspective in this oft-scary book. Much of that is due to me reading Job in the New Living Translation. 

Some folks like to bring up Job in theological arguments and some folks tip-toe around his story since nobody wants to be in his position. 

Sometimes we forget that Job was a real person going through a horrific time  He didn't have it all figured out.  Though he was confused about what was going on in his life, along with all the voices screaming their advice in his ear, he maintains his innocence.  He realized he couldn't and shouldn't argue with God.

This verse, this cry of Job's, arrested my attention and resonated in my spirit.

"If only there was a mediator between us,

someone who could bring us together."

Job 9:33, NLT

It's a recurring cry of the Old Testament, a collection of books that often highlights the need and the cry for the Messiah - the One who would be our perfect Mediator.

Again he calls out, 
"I need someone to mediate between God and me..." Job 16:20

It seems to me that Job is aware that something is up, that he's innocent and that this digression of his whole life is undeserved.  He wanted to plead his case before God, leading him to cry out for a mediator.  I believe this verse is pointing forward to Jesus and His role in the believer's life, leading me to believe that Job's situation is not as over-reaching as many think. 

Satan had accused Job and God allowed him to be thoroughly tested.  Even if God wanted to test us so thoroughly in this way, Job is teaching us that we now have a Mediator, making the situation a bit different than his.  We have a go-between.

People are sometimes afraid to believe God is really good, thinking they might be put in Job's situation at some point in their lives. 

God IS righteous and just; there is no question of that for me.  And surely there are trials in believers' lives.

These verses helped me see Job's situation in a different light.  With a Mediator in the mix, we have Christ's blood and righteousness covering us.  Christ, our Mediator, is standing between the accuser and Father God; He is even standing in our stead.

Here's a thought from the Matthew Henry Commentary:
We truly can't plead for ourselves, but we must put all of our hopes on having a Mediator and being accepted with God.

Seeing Job's heart-felt, heart-wrenching cry for a mediator made me wonder if I value my Mediator as Job would. 

The fresh gratitude for what Jesus has done for me is not something I anticipated finding in the book of Job and yet, there it is. 

Friend, if there's a book of the Bible that scares or intimidates you, I'd like to encourage you to give it another shot.  Pray, try a different, more modern translation, dig deeper and see what God opens up to you. 

Dominique

Pics are from the ever-changing kaleidoscope at the Arboretum.

Blossom3, Bark and Beautiful Prayers

Summer has been golden this week.  Not in a Pinterest perfect summer kind of way, just in a joyful, unifying, God is working kind of way.  

Blossom3 has been in a bit of a rough spot over the past year-plus, like a diamond in the rough spot. 

 I've fought discouragement, panic and a complete lack of any idea what to do.  

I'm thankful for all the times my husband has comforted me and helped me to stay the course, to cling to the vision.  I'm grateful for the wisdom and encouragement shared by a friend at a park playground to keep Jesus at the heart of the matter, to keep pointing her to the Cross as the Hope of life.  

If I lose sight of vision in parenting, I tend to forget that I'm teaching them the Gospel in action; that we, in and of ourselves, are powerless to be "good."  We are not enough and never will be enough.  Only a Savior, willing to lay down His own life, can redeem our lives and use them for His glory.  Through His power and strength, we can walk in the way He would have us to walk.  

Fast forward to the current struggle this week, we've been working on the Great Heat the Hollow 2017 venture, which translates to a whole lotta stacking wood.  The Littles are designated bark and wood chip gatherers.  While the Big Blossoms help stack wood, the Littles gather handfuls of bark, fill their plastic sled, drag it to the back of the compost pile and dump it.  

Based on their reaction to this, you'd think they had to pour concrete in 105 degree weather for 5 days straight.  Kids sure don't work naturally.  If you think so, I'm fairly certain your child is 20 months old.  Please laugh; it's a delightful phase, but it doesn't last long enough.  This week, my whole strategy changed from let's-just-get-this-wood-stacked to I'll-oversee-every-handful-of-bark.  This goes against my grain.  I just want to get the wood done, but this isn't about me.

In the big picture though, I want four blond, smiling women with work ethic.  So, the Big Blossoms keep stacking while I coach the Littles on how to stand, how to most efficiently grab bark with their little gloved hands, how to work constantly instead of sporadically, and how to work together to pull the sled.  

"I'm serious, girls, leave the worms alone.  You can catch them on your own time!  

PICK UP BARK NOW."  

I'm telling you, I'm serious about them working.  

It's been a long week that way.  

Ironically, this week we've been focusing on being a cheerful worker and yesterday I very briefly touched on working unto the Lord and not for people.  Imagine my delight when yesterday afternoon, Blossom3 demonstrated night and day difference in her work ethic during that wood and bark session.  

I praised her quickly and many times over the course of the day, as she did other things without being told.  She was focused and she obeyed without whining.  People, I'm not bragging.  I'm just so humbly grateful; humble enough to realize that this didn't have anything to do with me. 

 

Later that night, Blossom3 shared that she'd worked differently because she'd been working for the Lord.  

We can parent and parent and parent, but in the end, it's the Lord that must work on the heart.  

Additionally, over the past year and a half, our entire family has experienced effects on our daily life on account of a person's over-attentiveness to a facet of our way of living.  It has added stress to every moment of our waking hours, but I have purposed to keep my attitude right by doing what the Bible says we ought to do ~ pray for that person.  

I've been working with the girls on this as well.  I certainly don't want bitterness or offense creeping in to their hearts either.  

Listening to their prayers has been quite enlightening.  To my surprise, Blossom3's prayers have been the most heartfelt, thoughtful and creative.

"Please don't let their truck break down."

"Please don't let their well run dry."

"Please help their fruit trees to have lots of fruit."  

"Please don't let their roof leak." 

I was humbled by these prayers.  Her prayers showed thoughts of good toward this person, in a way that has challenged the rest of us to get past our "please diffuse their fixation" prayers.

I'm calling out now to every mama who is despairing over her diamond in the rough that is especially rough.  

Let us persevere!  Let us not despair!  

God is working.  

Humbly, we must continue to work and parent and teach and train and love and praise and smile and hug.  God truly is working.  

Dominique

More pics from our trip to the Arboretum, where we enjoyed camaraderie, peonies, snapdragons, dame's rockets, fountains, cairns, catbird sightings and more kaleidoscope fun.

Out with Us

Whenever you're in town, I always think you should make the most of it.  Get all your errands done!  See what there is to see!  So, when we were in town for a stellar book sale, I mentioned to my friend, Sue, how 'bout we hit up the Arboretum?

I'm so glad she was game, as it is one of the girlies favorite thing to do there.  

The pussy willows in this planter left me wondering if I had any "low spots" in my yard, so I could plant pussy willows.  Sue agreed.

I'm a horticulture lover.  I'm pretty sure it's a love, passed down from my grandparents, to my mother and now to me.  I couldn't get enough of the sumptuous blooms there!

Everything about the Children's Garden is entirely hands-on.  As a mama, I so appreciate this.  I get tired of telling them not to touch.

Blossom2, of course, gets a kick out of the cave, as did Sue.  I'm pretty sure this is because she has been spelunking a time or two.  

I can't resist the brilliant hues there, including the orange ones!  

Pansies, right along with daisies are such friendly flowers, so jovial and spunky.

And snapdragons are quintessentially springy, if I do say so myself.

In the water (again),

on the chimes,

on the rocks,

and exploring, this place is always full of surprises.

I was totally thrilled to discover the identity of the "bubble gum bush" from my childhood.  We never knew what it was, so we dubbed it thus because of its sweet and fruity aroma.  Now I'm busy checking online for bushes to add to our little micro farm spread.  I can't wait to smell that childhood fragrance again.

In the conservatory, I was so excited to finally discover what a hummingbird nest looks like.  

I hope to one day see one in the wild.

We adore these tiny fairy gardens, as there is so much scope for the imagination there.

Blossom3 put her scope of imagination to work with the funky building blocks.

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The old-time pump and watering trough is always a favorite for the Blossoms.

This led to a later discussion on whether or not we could drill a second well and cap it with a hand pump, so the girlies have to pump all their own animal water.  

I'm all about wholesome upbringings and good old-fashioned hard work never hurt anyone.  

Even Blossom4 got in on the pump action, flexing her four year old pixie muscles to get the water going.  

And, that kaleidoscope.  

Ain't no kaleidoscope as cool as the one that mingles the purpley hues of pansies that only God can make.  Divine.  

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into an outing with us... more pics coming soon!

Until then, keep the faith!

Dominique