Be Kind...Go and Do Likewise

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

~Luke 10:25-37

The story of The Good Samaritan was our story for the evening on Wednesday.

Jeff was wanting to stress being helpful (which stems from having mercy on others or is that a stretch?) to the kids. There has been some umm... lack of helpfulness towards each other among the ranks lately.

Our game.

The task was to bind up the leg wound of Cat in the Hat

To accomplish that we needed to be helpful.

How?

(so clever I might add) The kids were to divide into teams of two, blindfold one team member while the other team member with words only directed the blindfolded youth to the bandages, and then to Cat in the Hat to bind up his wound.

Working on a word search.

A FUN snack!!!

Some mysterious person(s) dropped this off along with some other goodies on our door step this week. It made for an awesome snack!!

Thank you secret someone!!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Sunshiny Day

Pumpkin muffins and southwest style scrambled eggs are a good way to start the day!!

Something to remember as the day moves on.

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.

~Steve Martin

Josiah's football pictures. What a handsome young man he is!

Elena's random doodling.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Can You Smell This?

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Just a Random Day

A few rounds of matching game with Lily.

If you do not like to lose you might not want to play with her.

Lily's sharp 5 year old memory is much better than my 40 something memory.

Reading drills

The never ending math corrections

A special something from Jeff.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Riding Along In My Automobile Among Other Things

Grant and his new car!!!

Wow!!!

How did this happen?

He was a tiny baby just yesterday...

I am so proud of you Grant!

He earned every penny to pay for this car on his own.

Grant's hard work at McDonalds sure did pay off.

Grant and a few of his sibs on their way to the high school for various after school activities.

Josh pointed out this bird in one of our trees. I had never seen a bird like this. It is very pretty.

Josh made me this wonderful decoration today.

I was back to sewing this afternoon.

I made a few Valentine cards to go with

some Valentine treat bags I made for my Etsy shop.

The bags are reversible. How neat is that!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

VICTORY! Did You Miss It?

For those of you who might have missed the end meaning of my rambling and drama queen-ish post yesterday, I sum it up with one word

VICTORY

I had victory in Christ.

Sing song voice

VICTORY

I stepped out of the muck of my attitude.

I stayed away from that wound licking corner.

I obeyed the Lord and I served.

I served Jeff.

I served the kids.

We served the recipients we made cookies for.

It took faith and a lot of the Lord's strength to obey this:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives.

John 12:24

But in the end

for that evening

for that moment

the battle was won.

I hope you did not miss that in my post yesterday.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

What to say?

I have many thought fragments swimming crazy like in my mind but I have such  hard time processing them into a series of understandable, intelligent sounding thoughts.

What can I narrow my thoughts down to?

What main thing can I focus on?

Ok.

I will try.

Here goes.

Gee, I fail. Oh boy do I fail.

I almost daily am reminded of how so ill equipped I am as a mom of many. Ok as a human being. My heart, my passion is to follow the Lord down this road he has me on. I am just so weak. I fail SO much. The pressure can be so great. Did I say I fail SO much?

Why did the Lord asked me and not about a zillion other women who would do a better job, I have no idea.

Sometimes I think that he really was asking someone else but me being the want-a-be I am, the girl without a social clue that  I am,  I budged in front of his intended target all obnoxious like and took his task card running away with it before anyone knew what was happening. And look what I did. I made a mess of things. Now I need him to fix things. Fix my mess. He constantly needs to fix the wounds I created and then left fester, the feelings I trampled all over, the dreams I squashed, the tiny fragile hearts I broke.

Mess. Mess. Mess.

But despite my messes.

Despite it all I need to move on. To keep doing my best. To keep going to God to fix what I have broken.

Today is one of those times.

Humbled, I want to hide in a corner and lick my wounds.

The last thing I want to do is to participate in teaching the kids about living for the Lord.

I am sure they can see the hypocrisy oozing out of my every pore.

But the night moved on anyway.

I just oozed all over but no one really noticed. At least not this evening.

Jeff started the evening reading 2 Kings 22 when the book of the Law was found under King Josiah's reign. How King Josiah humbled himself before God on behalf of himself and his people and God responded:

"Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’”

Jeff encouraged the kids of how important it is to live a life in obedience to God just like King Josiah did. And when we are reading the Bible to take seriously the things God is teaching us.


Jeff then read the kids the story of the Widow's offering.


The Widow’s Offering

Mark 12: 41-44

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Jeff explained that there are people who give us things, maybe a can of beans here or a bag of rice there, who like the widow are not giving out of their richness but sharing what little they have with us out of kind obedience to the Lord. God wants us to have the same heart. The same type of obedience.

So we set off to make two very kind older ladies cookies and thank you cards.

Can you smell the tasty goodness?

It was a fun night.

That corner I wanted to hang out in licking my wounds...it would have not been very fun. It was kind of a cold, drafty corner anyway.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Worth the Effort

Want another Happy Jack quote?

I could go on for days sharing Happy Jack's wise squirrel words.

Thrift is the meat in the nut of success.

So thrift it is!!

I had four cans of cranberry sauce that we were given this past holiday season. I had stashed them away but unlike Happy Jack who always remembers were he hides his acorns, I had forgotten.

I came across them and thought a late afternoon treat would hit the spot!

I had been SO tired today so I spent most of the afternoon on the couch napping but off the couch I got because this little treat would be worth the effort.

Lily my helper.

Looking good!!

A happy helper!!

I forgot to take a picture of our cooked cranberry crisp. The couch called me back.

BUT

the effort was worth it!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

P.S. No sewing for the 5th day in a row. I really must be tired.

Kindnesses

To my dear friends Jeannie and Barb I thank you so much for your friendship!

I am a very quirky person but you two have the abitity to understand me despite that.

Not an easy thing to do!

I appreciate your listening ears and wise words.

Happy Jack says my thoughts well.

When you find a friend in trouble
Pass along a word of cheer.
Often it is very helpful
Just to feel a friend is near.

~ Happy Jack (The little squirrel who wears a gray suit and dwells in Green Meadow.)

Very well said Happy Jack!

And thank you my dear friends.

On another note:

Nolan and Grant kindly let me snap a picture of them as they were heading out the door for wrestling practice and weight lifting (respectively) this afternoon.

Two handsom young men!

Lily is very fond of this hat Mrs. Byron included in a few bags of clothes she dropped by today.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Perfect Gift!

My son Josh knows me very well.

He gave me a special present and it is just perfect.

THANK YOU JOSH!!!!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Just a Granola Morning!

Tasty.

Tasty.

No sewing Friday.

No sewing today!

BUT granola served in this really cool bowl Jeff found at our local resale shop looks so pretty.

Good find Jeff!!

The bowl has just the right amount of wear, chips, and dings and it just really makes me smile.

Sometimes it is the very simple things that make my day.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Just Because We Can...

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the cupboard,

To give the poor dog a bone;

When she came there,

The cupboard was bare,

And so the poor dog had none.

She went to the baker's

To buy him some bread;

When she came back

The dog was dead!

She went to the undertaker's

To buy him a coffin;

When she came back

The dog was laughing.

She took a clean dish

to get him some tripe;

When she came back

He was smoking his pipe.

She went to the alehouse

To get him some beer;

When she came back

The dog sat in a chair.

She went to the tavern

For white wine and red;

When she came back

The dog stood on his head.

She went to the fruiterer's

To buy him some fruit;

When she came back

He was playing the flute.

She went to the tailor's

To buy him a coat;

When she came back

He was riding a goat.

She went to the hatter's

To buy him a hat;

When she came back

He was feeding her cat.

She went to the barber's

To buy him a wig

When she came back

He was dancing a jig.

She went to the cobbler's

To buy him some shoes;

When she came back

He was reading the news.

She went to the sempstress

To buy him some linen;

When she came back

The dog was spinning.

She went to the hosier's

To buy him some hose;

When she came back

He was dressed in his clothes.

The Dame made a curtsy,

The dog made a bow;

The Dame said, Your servant;

The dog said, Bow-wow.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

A Few Frocks and Such

Muffin-pan eggs and oatmeal scones with orange and apple made a fun breakfast.

Elena giving Lily nail polishing tips.

Oopsy.

I guess I overlooked Lily's need to change her clothes from yesterday. She fell asleep in her day clothes last night and it did not register in my mind until I looked at this picture that I should have had her change. What awesome parenting skills,Tina!

Joel and Josh making snowmen

Shiloh giving the guinea pigs an intimidating 'who's the boss?!' stare down

Cyrus brought home his football pictures today.

My sewing for the day.

I am kind-of glad tomorrow is the end of the week. I have had a week long headache, not much sleep, and am looking forward to a Saturday nap. I have been prickly, harsh, and have not been rising above my negative attitude well this week. A lengthy nap would do me well.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy