Season of Thanks

I love that our nation sets aside one day a year just to be thankful. Since God inhabits the praises of His people, I believe that He draws very near to the USA on Thanksgiving Day.  Since I would love for Him to be near ALL the time I like to thank Him more often than once a year, or once a month, or even once a day.  Here are a few of the items on my Thank You list for God.

 Muffin, Our Godly husband, father, and grandpa.

 Christel, Becky, Joy, and Kathleen, my beautiful gifts from God.

 The Snelsons, a son for whom we prayed and Ruby and Emme, miracles from God.

 The Wilsfords, another son for whom we prayed and Gracie and Jonah, and our wee little punkin on the way, more miracle gifts from God.

 The Varrones, yet another son for whom we prayed and Baby Sebastian who is 3 months old today, although already a lifetime in our hearts.

 Kathleen, our darling Baby, with her Daddy.

 The Nannie, my Mom.

Nana, Muffin's Mom.

Running behind and playing Catch Up

I'm running behind on blogging and several other activities. Playing catch up with photos. 

 At the end of September and first of October the monarchs arrived in town. They were like lovely orange and black snowflakes in my alley. 

 End of September, Muffin surprised me with a new car. He brought it to me between rehearsals for a concert. That sneaky boy! 

 October 8 we drove in our new car to Galveston, stayed in a lovely B&B, the Coppersmith Inn, and sailed away on October 9 to the Caribbean on the Conquest.

 A kiss from God. Beautiful moon rise within the sunset over the ocean.

 We had the best cabin stewards ever! 

 Muffin looking rested with the Jamaican blue mountains as backdrop.   We both got massages that day!

Sailing away from Montego Bay at sunset.

 Seven mile beach, Grand Cayman.

 Mexico! Love the country!

Our catamaran to Passion Island

 Another kiss from God: coral washed into Muffin's hand as he left the water, headed to the sand at the island.

Passion Island was wonderful, even in the rain. 

 Stormy sea as we departed Cozumel.

Amazing food!  Our head waiter was Spitz from India. When he learned that we sponsored a child in India he brought additional food to us, three dinners in a row.  It was delicious Indian food, specially prepared for Carnival guests. Of course we had already ordered our meals each of these nights so we actually ate two meals.  Feeling Fat!

Couldn't wait to catch up with the grands when we checked our email messages.  Later this month we began to get these entertaining photos of Sebastian.  

  How many two month olds have a mustache?

He's awesome!  

 All of these smiling kids just attended the Abilene Philharmonic student concerts. Those four concerts, plus five rehearsals and another classical concert wrapped up last week and the weekend.  I'm tired! 

As you can see in this photo of Mr. Coat, otherwise know as Sebastian, our first cold spell arrived.  Sebastian saw his first snow and we had temperatures in the 30's with rain!  

Just need to write

Lots of thoughts inside my gray haired head today.

• Sebastian is 7 weeks old. He has grown so much and looks cuddlier than ever.  I miss him.
• Muffin is on the upside of recovery from a huge infection in his face from a tooth that cracked when he snapped his jaws, falling on the ice in February. First treated for sinus infection, then a root canal, then several days of antibiotics and reactive to the meds.  Finally feeling better.
• CB & JB are moving from Hill Country to DFW today.  After 13 years in the HC this is a big change for Emme, Ruby, et. al.  I have Maggie and Mo, the border collies, and they finally seem content with me after escaping and being on the lam in the neighborhood for 6 hours the first week we had them.  Scary for us all! God was so good to have a neighbor see them and call us, and CB felt strongly that she should have new tags made for them with our numbers.  

• Nannie had some major problems with a spot on her arm that included pain, stitches, meds, etc. And her pain meds for her back have been increased for greater comfort. 

• 
  
• Joy's brother in law, Kevin, was hospitalized with pancreatitis and is scheduled for a whipple procedure in 17 days. Praying this is totally benign and unnecessary for him.  He's so young!
• In my studio one of the Dad's is also hospitalized with pancreatitis, is in ICU, but will not have surgery. Another family lost one grandfather three weeks ago and their last grandparent, a very dear grandmother, last week.  Muffin and I took them a meal and I went to the service yesterday.  

• Monarch butterflies have arrived and are thick in our neighborhood. I see them flying past the window as I teach violin lessons. They are migrating to Mexico.

• My reunion group sisters are experiencing some tough times and difficulties and my spirit wants to pray for them continuously too
• We got great news yesterday that I'm not allowed to share yet!!!!!
• Our opening concert went very well--beautiful music played well.  I felt much pressure from the inside out and the outside in, but it was spiritual in nature.  Muffin and I had a good time of cleansing and freedom on Sunday. 

• One of my adorably sweet teenage students baked pumpkin bread for me. It is deliciouoso!  (A non official musical term.)
• We have a new car!  It's another silver Camry, very quiet, very comfortable, and very safe--just what we needed. 

Life is interesting. It is guaranteed that we will have troubles and challenges, but learning to allow God's Kingdom to fully come to earth and dominate those is my goal.  The "King's Dominion"--my heart, my life, my studio, my family, my relationships, my thoughts, my dreams, my breath!

Eleven Days

   Eleven days since  Sebastian was born. Nine days spent with him and his parents.  Nine days and nights cooking, cleaning, changing, burping, swaddling, loving, rocking, adoring this sweet family.  I feel like I am producing, acting in, and watching a movie--the most informative documentary, the most dramatic drama, the most exciting adventure, the tenderest comedy, the most beautifully creative animation, the most diverse musical to be filmed since Gracie, Ruby, Emme, and Jonah were born, and before that since Christel, Becky, Joy, and Kathleen were born.

   
Father God is tenderly loving us and rejoicing over us, preparing a secure and appropriately nurturing environment for us just as we do for Sebastian.  He feeds us His Word--both written and living--as we come to Him, hungry for more of Him.  He swaddles us when we are overstimulated and too needy for rest to even know that we need Him.  He prepares a table for us always--Jehovah Jireh. He chuckles when we make new discoveries and include Him in our social contacts.

He watches over us as we sleep and as we are awake.  He goes before us to prepare a place for us.

   
   He send us flowers, visitors, and new gifts just because He is happy that we are His.  And His Father-Mother-Grandparent heart is always saying "I love you. You are awesome. You are the best. You are the most wonderful to ever live. You are beautiful. You are perfect. You are mine. You are worthy of a new song. You are worth watching over day and night. You are worth all the work. You are special. You are the reason I sent my only Son.  It was worth it all."

Fearfully and wonderfully

God, you are sooooooo Good!  You have known us before we were ever formed in the depths of the earth and made us fearfully and wonderfully pronoucing us as "good."  You did many things well this week and long before, too.  You told me which flight to choose in June for an August trip.  You spoke to me and said, "this one, on August 9th departing at 9 a.m. is the right one."  Sebastian was born on August 7 after 40 weeks and 40 hours of labor and was released from the hospital on August 9th.  My departing plane was delayed on the tarmac for almost one hour while a broken gauge was replaced, but none of the children on the plane got restless. Our arrival time was perfect, and my taxi trip was perfect, and I arrived less than one hour at Mike and Joy's home after they brought Sebastian home.

You gave Sebastian a Mommy and Daddy who love him so very much.  Once again it just makes my heart all warm and fuzzy like a peach ripened in the sun to observe my children with their babies.  I think You like to see Your children enjoy their babies too.  When I see your Holy Spirit in worship He always appears in swirls--light, color, water, or sound swirls--like a ribbon dancer or beautiful swirls in nature.  I think the Aurora Borealis is You showing off in the sky.  I think waterfall rainbows are You showing yourself to us.  I think sundogs in the clouds are You.  I think air bubbles in water are You.  I think sound waves, and bells and chimes, and bird calls, and echos are all You, just showing off for us to see if we notice You.  Most lately I've decided that swirls in nature--roses as they open, doodle bug holes, fingerprints, skin on our knuckles, hair growth on our head--are all kisses from You. Unique prints that you leave on us to remind us that you made us fearfully and wonderfully and know us full well.  Thank you for your stamp, My Maker.

He is born!

Sebastian Michael

Born 8/7/2011 at 7:14 EDT

Weight: 7 lb. 8 oz

Length: 20.5 inches

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Dark and alert

Fingers: Long and expressive

Cheeks: Chubby

Name means: venerable, esteemed

It was only a minute ago that Sebastian's Mommy was born and I was there.  She arrived on a snowy weekend when my doctor was not on call.  It was an adventure that ended in wonder and love when she was born at 2:40 pm.  

Sebastian's Mommy

Every time a beautiful baby comes to live in our family my response is to praise God, for each one is fearfully and wonderfully made, and He has known them and formed them in the depths of the earth.  A new temple for His glory has come on this earth!  Glory! Glory! Glory!

Psalm 29:9; 48:9 And in God’s temple everything says, “Glory!” NAS Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. NIV

Drought

As the deer pants for the waterbrooks so my soul thirsts for You O Lord.

Texas is now in extreme drought. Yesterday it was 106 here. That is normal now.  The average temperature for July was 101, and we received zero rain. ZERO. More than 50 days this summer have been 100 degrees or more.  One inch of rain fell June 6 and that was the last time we had measurable rain.  Our landscaping that represents 21 years of growth is in danger because there is just not enough water to satisfy the deep needs of the plants.  Every day on the TV news there is a report of the extraordinary conditions and results--plagues of ants and grasshoppers trying to escape the heat. Water snakes on hoods of cars.  Devastating wildfires. Lakes with X number of days of water supply remaining. Fawns dying in deer herds in high numbers.  Electricity alerts and warnings of outages.

We need You, O Lord!  We need You to come and pour out on us rivers of living water!  We need you to break open the heavens and let it rain! Open the floodgates of heaven!  We need the cooling wind of your Spirit and the rising river of your love flowing all around us!  You are the only One who can satisfy us!  Our souls thirst for You!