How Great Thou Art

So, you have probably already seen this video, but I just had to post it here, too. I didn't actually watch the Country Girls Night Out on CBS or whatever it was called, but I have seen this video all over Facebook. We love Carrie Underwood in our house, and we listen to her sing How Great Thou Art all the time. In fact, Sanders does a great version of it herself! ;-)

This night, however, Carrie totally rocked it, and although I am not usually a huge Vince Gill fan, I must say he really was a good bonus on this song. If you haven't already, give it a listen. Your eyes will not be dry by the end, I promise! Because, really, how great is our God???

More Easter Pics

Sorry for the rush of posts in one day, but I am trying to catch up!!

Over Easter, we had an Easter Egg Hunt at our cousin, Cilla's house:

We dyed eggs and then hunted them at Grandmama's house (in our undies, of course!):

We attended a Baptism of a sweet friend, Mary Cabell, and a cousin, Grey, and Tyler also made her First Communion. I don't have any pictures from Maundy Thursday, the night of the actual First Communion, because we were, as usual, in a huge rush to get to the church. It was a wonderful service, though, and Ty did a great job. I can't believe my firstborn is old enough to be making her First Communion already!!

The Easter Bunny visited, of course! (I don't know why this is underlined...Blogger, you make me angry sometimes!!)

Ty helped flower the Cross at church:

And, on a side note, my dad was telling us at lunch today that a total of 1712 people attended Easter services at our church on Sunday. Our church was started in the year 1712 (next year is our 300th anniversary)...pretty cool little fact, huh?

It's Time!

I have had several people ask me to keep them posted on when the time gets near, and now it is here.

What am I talking about????

Blueberries! Start looking in your grocery stores as they will be arriving very soon. Watermelons will be following in the next couple of weeks, then it will be tomato season, and Brad and I won't know if we are coming or going! Now go on out and buy some fresh, delicious produce!!

Happy Easter!

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!

Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!

Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!

Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!

(Mr. Grumpy Pants didn't want a picture.)

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!

Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!

Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!

Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!

(And, finally, he cooperated!)

But the pains which He endured, Alleluia!

Our salvation hath procured, Alleluia!

Now above the sky He’s king, Alleluia!

Where the angels ever sing, Alleluia!

Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!

Praise eternal as His love, Alleluia!

Praise Him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia!

(Bubba felt better after some Easter lunch and some new shades!)

Hymn text from here.

My (Middle) Easter Honey Bunny

We are on Spring Break this week, but last week Sanders' class had a really cute Easter party. They hunted eggs, dyed eggs, did crafts, got their faces painted, had cute Easter-themed snacks, and even had a visit from the Easter bunny.

I don't know why all of my pictures uploaded so blurry, but here is my cute little girl at her party:

In a t-shirt so she wouldn't mess up her pretty dress while dyeing eggs:

This is probably the only picture Sanders has ever gotten with the Easter bunny...

Sanders just lost her third tooth at the beginning of last week, so she has loved showing off that gap-toothed smile:

Happy Holy Week, everyone!

In the Middle of a Watermelon Field

I know that I have mentioned that we live in a watermelon field, but I wanted to show you that we do, in fact, live in the middle of a watermelon field.

I give you Exhibits A and B:

These are the view from my deck. It is a bit hard to tell from these pictures, but those strips of black are the plastic that house the baby watermelon plants that will soon grow into big watermelon plants. In fact, if I lie in my bed and turn my head to look out the window just right, I can see watermelons (or watermelon plants, rather).

So, on weekends in June when the kids and I are taking a break from tomato world to come home to see Brad, we can wave out the window to some watermelon pickers as they are out in the field working. It is going to be awesome to have 200 total strangers in my yard.

There you have it: reason #1246 I am ready for my house to be completed!

Out of a Funk

I have been a bit of a stress ball lately. I mentioned everything that I have going on in my last post over a week ago, and my to-do list has not gotten any smaller in the meantime. In fact, it probably has just gotten longer. Then I get in the bed and can't get my brain to "turn off," so I can't go to sleep and my mornings come way too early -- so I am also tired which makes for a very cranky Christie.

I keep thinking to myself "If I were just more organized, I would have a better handle on everything I have to do." Or "If there were just more hours in the day, I would be able to get more accomplished."

And then, the other morning when I was reading my Jesus Calling devotional, the Lord spoke directly to me. This is what He said:

April 11

This is the day that I have made. Rejoice and be glad in it. Begin the day with open hands of faith, ready to receive all that I am pouring into this brief portion of your life. Be careful not to complain about anything, even the weather, since I am Author of your circumstances. The best way to handle unwanted situations is to thank Me for them. This act of faith frees you from resentment and frees Me to work My ways into the situation, so that good emerges from it.

To find Joy in this day, you must live within its boundaries. I knew what I was doing when I divided time into twenty-four-hour segments. I understand human frailty, and I know that you can bear the weight of only one day at a time. Do not worry about tomorrow or get stuck in the past. There is abundant Life in My Presence today.

And, of course, He is right. And, of course, He put that out there for me right when I needed it.

No, my to-do list hasn't gotten any smaller, but what would I do with extra time in my day? Honestly, I would probably fill it up with more things on my to-do list rather than spending abundant life in the presence of my Lord. I would spend more time being frazzled and stressed rather than peaceful and calm. I need to take a step back and be thankful for all of those things on my to-do list -- my family, my job, the house that we are building.

But, most importantly, I need to make sure to take time out of my day to be thankful for my Lord who stretched out His arms on the hard wood of the Cross to save me from my frazzled, stressed out self.

Lucky 7

I feel like I have at least three jobs right now: mom, farm bookkeeper, and house builder. My life is really busy right now because it is spring time and spring brings planting and busyness to the farm which means that we get busier in the office because we have more employees and bills to pay, and this year we are putting in an H2A contract, which means that we are asking for workers from Mexico or other countries outside the US to come pick tomatoes. This spring is even busier for me than usual because I am trying to nail down all of my plumbing and lighting decisions, counter tops, cabinetry and basically anything that I can do in advance before we get really busy on the farm and I don't have the time to do it. I have had many meetings after work that last until at least 7 or later, and then I have an hour drive home. And then I have my normal mom duties -- cooking, keeping the house straight, laundry, grocery shopping.

It calls for some wine and some whining.

So, anyway, here's some stuff that's been going on aside from all of that:

1. Brad was up all night last night doing frost protection which means that I got to get up extra early and wake the kids up this morning, which is his usual job. I am not a morning person. I have tried to be a morning person, but it just hasn't ever happened. I hate 6 am with a passion.

2. We have had some crazy weather lately -- hail, wind, rain, heat, cold. It is a little stressful when you make your living off farming and you literally put millions of dollars into the ground each year; you do everything in your power to make the crop grow the best you can and you baby those plants, but you just have to have faith where the weather is concerned. And then you throw in regulations by the government. And then you throw in the general public who think that they know better than you do how things should be grown. It makes me think of the bumper sticker on my brother's truck "When you gripe about the farmer, don't talk with your mouth full." People think their food just sprouts in the grocery store and have no idea the blood, sweat, and tears that go into getting it there, really.

And that is my soapbox about that for tonight.

3. I get these emails about the development of 8-year-olds (Tyler), 5-year-olds (Sanders), and 3-year-olds (Gibson), and today I got the one about 8-year-olds and it said something about how talkative they are. You think? Tyler seriously talks from the time she gets up until the time she goes to bed. Unless we are in public and an adult asks her a question -- then she is a mute. It is so frustrating because that is exactly how I was as a child.

But all that talking? It wears me out. Really, everyone in my family is a talker, including Brad. Sometimes I just long for some peace and quiet.

4. My desire to go to the Keys is just getting worse and worse. And I have no immediate or future plans to go. Boo!

5. My boyfriend got married last week. Sigh...

6. I decided to do something productive with my commute to work, so I have been listening to some sermons from our church. For some reason (probably because I am not all that technologically savvy), only random sermons are uploading to my iPod, but I listened to these two this morning. They are worth a listen if you have time. Here and here. The first is by our bishop and the second is by our rector. I was hoping to hear one from my friend, Andrew, this morning -- I have actually missed a couple of his last ones and wanted to catch up as they are also always good -- but I need to find them and figure out how to get them on my darn iPod.

7. Duke the Dog is getting snipped tomorrow, and I don't mean a haircut. Then he has to wear one of those lampshade things for 10 days to 2 weeks. Um, yeah. I see that going really well. He is a wild animal -- really, I think he is part wolf -- so I don't know how he is going to stand the lampshade. It shall be interesting...

Um, okay, that is a bunch of randomness if I ever saw it...have a great night!

Menu Monday

This post is going to be short and sweet because I did absolutely no cooking last week. I mean it -- none. I will probably not do a whole lot of cooking between now and packing season when I won't do any since we have a cook at the packing house. Brad and I are both getting busy and working pretty late, so meals are kind of hard this time of year, but I will post everything that I do cook.

In the meantime, if you have any quick, easy, healthy meals or anything that can go in the crock-pot, I would love to hear about it!

Hiding God's Word In My Little Hearts

Margaret recently told me about a book that she had learned about from our friend, Katy, where you do a short reading with your kids and then teach them a verse from the Bible to memorize. The first verse begins with an "A", the second verse begins with a "B," and so on and so forth until the end when the kids have 26 Bible verses under their belts.

The book is called My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt.

Hunt writes in the beginning of the book "The psalmist said, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11 KJV) God's Word fortifies our children against sin because it tells them about Jesus and their need for Him. The person who helps a child hide the Word in his or her heart gives that child a rich inheritance. Many testify that they have never forgotten the verses they memorized as children. Many also testify that they have never forgotten the person who taught them the Word."

I decided that Lent would be a perfect time to start this book with my kids, and we are doing one verse a week. It really is the sweetest thing to see the kids memorize the verses -- and even Gibson can do it at age three -- each week and put them into practice. We are also using the verses in teaching moments when the situation arises. So far we have learned (we didn't start right at the beginning of Lent):

A soft answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Colossians 3:20

I love that the kids (and Brad and I) are memorizing Scripture, and I hope that they will keep these verses in their little hearts forever. And I know that memorizing these few verses hasn't yet made my kids perfect little creatures, nor will it, but it is my prayer that these verses will be in the back of their minds when they make decisions -- and hopefully they will make better decisions because of them.