finally off the trail.....

We're back from family vacation and Heartland Conference Youth Camp -- only 2 days between these very full events!

Have I got a ton of pictures and lots of new to share!

Having a little trouble with my computer monitor so it may take me a day or so to upload everything -- but stay tuned......

And, beware...............Valorie is back and ready to do some serious blogging!

Home-Grown Idioms

I promised you some idioms -- and I have got some good ones. Down South on our vacation, my friends helped me remember quite a few that I wrote down to share with you. The people who settled in the hills and on the prairies used colorful language to describe people, attitudes, and situations. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the right phrase paints a scene in the mind even without a picture. Check these out:

• That shines like a pewter dollar in a mud hole.
• You are as slow as molasses in January.
• We'll do ___________ the Lord willing and the creek don't rise.
• If you lay down with the dog, you get up with the fleas.
• That is as old as the hills and twice as muddy.
• You can't sling a cat without hitting someone we're kin to.
• She is so stuck up she'd drown if it rained.
• He was "carrying the mail." (going fast)
• It's cold enough to kill hogs.
• We were so poor the mice had to eat out.
• He is as rough as a cob. (coarse, unrefined person)
• That is as ugly as a mud fence.
• He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.
• Let's head for the hills. (go home)
• You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
• She doesn't have the sense God gave a goose.
• He looks like he was corn-fed. (plump baby)
• You look like you was sent for, couldn't go, and when you got there nobody wanted you! (looking flustered)

Aren't these great? I'm still collecting, so send me more if you think of them.

Thanks -- Derek, Gina, Sandra, Rodney, and Mama!

the wonder of words

An idiom is a a common manner of speaking in a certain language -- words and phrases which everyone can identify as carrying a specific meaning.

Idioms intrigue me. I found a site of common English idioms. www.idiomsite.com. Give it a look and see how many you recognize.

If you know idioms which are common to a certain region or state, I would love to hear them. For instance, the South has some great expressions of speech -- I will get to them next time. If you know a great idiom, leave me a comment. Aren't words wonderful?

Thinking about prayer.......

Our Sunday School class is studying a book on prayer by Philip Yancey. We had an intriguing discussion this morning on "Why pray?" Now, I know all the "reasons." Without getting into all the technicalities of it, here are a few of the things that rambled through my mind.

• We should pray in the context of relationship rather than as completing a formula (prayer is not "how to get things" it's "how to know God.")
• We have to pray in God's Will (it's always His will to save the lost, strengthen Christians in trials, etc. )
• Prayer/Intercession will not override another person's free choice (some things happen because another person made a wrong choice. God will help me cope with the results and stay with me through anything, but He will not cancel another's right to choose)

For the July 4th holiday, we enjoyed a lovely day on the farm with the McLaughlin family. Thanks, Keith and Karen, for inviting us to share your fun. We had a blast. See the pics in the Smilebox below.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sweet Land of Liberty

Sweet land of liberty. America. Since the day when Samuel Adams called a secret meeting on a quiet street in Boston, the theme of America’s patriots has been freedom. Those men named themselves the Sons of Liberty…they became the front line for freedom in a fledgling nation just beginning to understand what the fight was going to mean. Their pact was insoluble. Their goal undebatable. Their courage unstoppable. Liberty marched out of that chamber and slipped into the front rooms of households across the land, jumping rivers, scaling mountains, weaving itself into the very fabric of what America holds dear.

Sweet land of liberty. America. What President Ronald Reagan called “a shining city on a hill.” Bathed in the glory of freedom, our nation calls to the weary and oppressed. They breathe a whisper of hope, their eyes seeking a distant horizon “if I can just make it to America!” The streets are open to all, the shops serve everyone, the churches beckon every Sunday, the goodwill of strangers is evident in the face of disaster and trouble. Land of opportunity. A place to call home.

Sweet land of liberty. America. They dream of its shores while they sleep in rumpled uniform, their minds tired, their bodies exhausted. Defending our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic, they are our armed forces. Our heroes. From Concord’s Old North Bridge to the Iraqi Desert, America’s finest have put themselves in the line of fire for freedom. They are wounded, maimed and killed. Their graves are sacred. And we embrace the liberty they so dearly bought.

Sweet land of liberty. America. Your children wave sparklers; your patriots salute flags; your masses enjoy picnics and parades. This is a grand birthday celebration. You are not so old, America. Just a toddler against the vintage of the world’s great empires. Yet your reign is unlike any other. You are an experiment in democracy. You are freedom’s poster child. You are the great ambassador of liberty. You are the embodiment of “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

America.

We pray for your sins. “May God shed His grace on Thee.”

We thank God for you. “May God crown your good with brotherhood.”

We pledge our devotion to you. We love you. “from sea to shining sea.”

-- V. Quesenberry

(photo -- my grandfather James Bender, Sr. 1913)

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Check out this blog....

I want to tell all of you about my friend, Evie Shiery, a young pastor's wife and mom who has a real gift for working with floral arrangements. She does them in her home, takes orders for custom designs, and sells them from her personal blog and in a local store. She does them for every season. I have one of her autumn designs that I really love.

For your home or church needs, you can find beautiful stuff at Evie's Elegants. What do you think of the Patriotic Mini-Wreath? Go see for yourself......

http://www.evieselegants.blogspot.com/