Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

Well...in case you haven't figured it out, I'm going to start a garden this year. It was one of the things on my list of things to do this year. It hasn't been started yet, but I'm pretty excited about it. We used to have a big garden years ago, but it was so much work (especially when my dad was doing all of the work). This year I've decided to learn gardening and my dad is going to help. Maggie wants to help with it too. Right now we're trying to figure out what we're going to plant. My dad was so nice and built a raised bed for it this weekend. All it needs now is some soil and seeds. I'll be sure to keep you updated on how it's going.

Shall We Gather At the River?

It's too cold for the river, so the baptismal will have to do! :) A few weeks ago I was able to be at the baptism of a lady from the jail ministry! It was so exciting to not only hear of her salvation, but to see her take that next step and get baptized! She is now one of the newest members of BBC where Jersey Mama's dad pastors.

Stuck In My Head

I've had this song in my head today. If I'm going to have a tune constantly running through my head, this is definitely a good one! How often do we really think about the words of the songs we sing? I know I'm guilty of not really taking in what it's talking about. As I read the words to this hymn, I can't help but think how timely it is to have such a song in my head. Our church is about to go through a big change, considering the Lord has called one of our pastors to go and pastor another church (this church was without a pastor). It was a shock when we found out, but peace is found knowing that God knows exactly what He's doing. We'll be fine. Life will continue. And, as this song says, Jesus is constantly abiding. He's always here with us no matter what life brings.

Hebrews 13:5c, "...for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

CONSTANTLY ABIDING

There’s a peace in my heart that the world never gave,

A peace it cannot take away;

Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud,

I’ve a peace that has come here to stay!

Refrain:
Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine;

Constantly abiding, rapture divine;

He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind:

“I will never leave thee,” Jesus is mine.

All the world seemed to sing of a Savior and King,

When peace sweetly came to my heart;

Troubles all fled away and my night turned to day,

Blessèd Jesus, how glorious Thou art!

Refrain

This treasure I have in a temple of clay,

While here on His footstool I roam;

But He’s coming to take me some glorious day,

Over there to my heavenly home!

Refrain

Jon and Kate Plus 8

For those of you who aren't familiar with this show on TLC, I'll briefly explain.

Jon met Kate.

Jon and Kate fell in love.

Jon and Kate wanted a family.

Jon and Kate had twins.

Kate wanted 'just one more'.

Jon and Kate had sextuplets.

This has become my new favorite show. I don't have TLC ;( but I got the first 3 seasons at a great price from Discovery Channel, so needless to say I've had some J&K+8 marathons. When Carolyn and I were housesitting, this is what we would find ourselves doing in the evenings. :) Understandably there's complete chaos in their home, but the kids are just so cute!

Knowing my love for the show, Carolyn bought me their first book MULTIPLE BLES8INGS:Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets. This was quickly added to my list of books read. It didn't take me long at all to read it. It was really good. It starts with how they met and then takes you along for the ride through the whole process of having the twins and sextuplets. I was thoroughly impressed with how often she attributed everything to God. She often talked about how it was only because of Him that she made it through each day and how she witnessed Him providing for their every need in ways unimaginable. I would definitely recommend this book. I can't wait for her next book to come out, Eight Little Faces.

On the TLC website you can watch full episodes as well as clips of the show.

It's A Busy Life

Some of you probably kept looking at my last post and said to yourself, "I thought she was going to keep up with her blog?" As my title says, things have been busy and when I have a moments rest I don't want to blog. Also, there were several weeks when all that I did was centered on the Sweetheart Banquet and obviously I couldn't divulge all the secrets about that because who knows whose reading this!

My life since my last blog:

• Trying to get my room back together. We had our carpet replaced in September(?) and my room has still yet to get back to normal. I took on the task of repainting my dresser (with my dad's help). I got a new nightstand that doubles as a filecabinet. It's really nice! And I'm still in the frustrating process of getting a bookshelf from Target. I'll tell that story another time along with pictures once everything is done.
• Sweetheart Banquet - I seem to have misplaced the CD with pictures on it. As soon as I find it or get my hands on some pictures I'll do a post on it.
• Bible Institute - Biblical Discipleship
• My computer at work broke down. That was a real set back. Although it was nice in the long run getting '07 and '09 programs!
• House sitting and watching two dogs that wanted to share their hair with everything I owned. How thoughtful! I'm still finding dog hair on my stuff.
• I turned another year older. Woo hoo! It's kinda weird when you realize that you're the same age your mom was when she was pregnant with you.
• Oh, and I've been working on a wonderful piano piece for our Patch-the-Pirate Club...Look to the Ants. It's 'The Ants Go Marching' plus some new lyrics.

Heard enough excuses? LOL...I sure have.

I've continued working on my book list. You'll see that one more has been added (Before You Meet Prince Charming). That was a really good book! I highly recommend it to any single young ladies.

Long Time Coming

Back in June I promised pictures from our white water rafting trip. Here they are!