I'm Back, Finally!.....Ms. Cellaneous

Apparently I needed a longer break than I had anticipated! Here it is September 1st and I am not quite sure what happened to August. Here are a few pictures from our trip that I won't be bothering to chronicle. We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends. The only drawback was not being ready to go home yet when it was time to go! One of the things that Chubby really enjoyed was being able to see a bunch of baby goats in an up close and personal kind of way.

Some of us went and saw some cool hot pots.

Here's the gang outside the condo we stayed in for a night. Immediately following this picture, everyone rapidly dispersed upon discovering oodles of ants in the vicinity!

Yes, this is really a random sampling blog to get me going again. That is why Ms. Cellaneous is delivering it. I have lots of ideas about things to blog about in future posts, but this one gets to be a little hodge-podge.

Next up are a couple of spiritual thoughts that I wanted to remind myself of. Hope you enjoy too.

Do you ever find yourself questioning the Lord? If so, you are not alone. In John 3 we read the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus asks Jesus a question. No matter what Jesus responds, Nicodemus keeps on questioning how it can be so.

I found the story rather interesting because, I think we often look at things from our own viewpoint and can't make sense of what the Lord is trying to tell us. No matter how much education we have, (And Nicodemus was apparently a learned man), we are still judging things from a limited view. If something doesn't seem logical, it probably isn't--to us! If we were able to see things the way the Lord sees, it would make complete sense. Keeping this in mind is what can allow us to go forward with faith.

Joel 2:10 reads in part, "the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great". I love how this says the Lord will go before us. This terminology is used fairly regularly in the scriptures. I think it is significant because God knows what is coming up ahead and can guide us through the rough spots as we allow him to do so.

I like to think of it in these terms: Perhaps the Lord has some rock climbing equipment or an airplane to help me navigate through/over/around the obstacles that I can see.

Maybe God has something silly in store for me today, like the tummy giggling game...

Anyone can play, even if you are on the phone. :)

Some days I might wind up on the bottom of the dog pile.

Hopefully if that happens I will still remember that God is in charge and that I have the ability to think about think/create/determine/reason a way to get out of my predicament. Or perhaps I will just pray for strength to hold up under pressure.

To wrap things up, here's a few tidbits.

• Nanner & Bub started college classes to finish out their senior year
• Patchy is awaiting his mission call
• Sticky is acting like a true Freshman, complete with adopting trendy phrases. His favorite? "I know, right?"
• Peanut is half way done with his Algebra course already. He started it only a couple of weeks ago and spends hours a day on it because he wants to. Part of me feels like saying, "WAIT! Slow Down!!" The other part says, "Wow! Go Peanut!"
• Princess is very excited to start a co-op science with some other little girls.
• Chubby is into puzzles and copying every sound anyone else makes now.

Hope your September is swell. :)