Writing for me is cathartic. It makes me put down what I am thinking and let it roll around somewhere else. It gets too crowded in my brain with too many thoughts. There are too many ideas and too much information to sort and go through and it starts to look and feel like that file cabinet you stuff all the bills and papers in thinking one day you will get back to filing them but you know you never do. They stay there till one day you can no longer shut the drawer and you just take them out and shred them all and start over.

This is my chance to shred them all. I am starting afresh. All my old posts will be here still but now it is time for some new ones. Butch and Sundance are now 11 and in middle school. Baby has not been a baby for years and I’ll call him #3 because that is where he falls in the order of things. If I can come up with a new name for him I will and I am open to suggestions.

I still drive a minivan. I still homeschool. Not much has changed. I have more grey hairs, less time and more place to drive the minivan. I hope someone is reading this but if not, my thought sill still be here.

I’ve been searching for free or nearly free activities for us to do and have had some success. Today we went to a magic show at the Frisco Library. We then went over to the Frisco Commons for a picnic and a run through the Splash Pad. The day finished off with Blue Bell Bullets from the freezer at home and Honey I Blew Up the Kid on TV. All for only the cost of gas there and back.

In two weeks, the library has another show and we are going to actually remember to take our swim suits this time.

A month after we joined we went on our first Webelo overnight and discovered Dutch Oven cooking. Honey was instantly interested. He asked so many questions, watched all the demonstrations and of course sampled all the food.

Last weekend, Honey got to attend a Dutch Oven class and could not wait to try out his new oven but last weekend we also had 20 degree weather so it had to wait. Tonight, with the weather in the 50s, he finally got his chance. Honey cooked sweet rolls in the Dutch Oven and they were wonderful except for the burned bottoms but who needs a bottom to a sweet roll when the icing is on the top.

Since we were already outside, Honey fired up the chimnea and the grill and I cooked breakfast for dinner al fresco, bacon and scrambled eggs on the grill. Well, not actually on the grill but in my cast iron skillet on the grill. We heated some tortillas and made breakfast burritos while warming ourselves by the fire. Food cooked and eaten outside just tastes better, almost as good as food I didn’t have to fix myself.

It was just a simple night but one that I will treasure for a long time. It is so wonderful to just be together, outside, with no TV, no phone, no video games to interrupt the family time. As the budget gets tighter and tighter, it is nights like this that will keep me sane and keep my focus on what really matters…just a simple night with my four favorite guys.

#1. Keeper clue: He has his act together.
#2. Keeper clue: He puts you first.
#3. Keeper clue: He’s not afraid of your germs.
#4. Keeper clue: He’s a family man.
#5. Keeper clue: He makes time for your friends
#6. Keeper clue: He’s your biggest cheerleader
#7. Keeper clue: He remembers the little things
#8. Keeper clue: He’s happy when you’re happy.
#9. Keeper clue: He makes you the best you can be.

Those of us who have been married for a few years knew these things or we would not have married the perfect guy for us. Honey is definitely a keeper.

I just wanted to add some more signs that I have learned after 11 years of marriage to the kindest, dearest man.

#10 keeper clue:He mows the lawn (and edges) without complaint.

#11 keeper clue: He is not afraid of a dirty diaper.

#12 keeper clue: He lets you have the first turn on the new Wii game.

#13 keeper clue: His socks miraculously appear in the laundry hamper after you refuse to wash them from the pile on the floor by his chair.

#14 keeper clue: He enjoys a good grilled cheese as much as a grilled ribeye.

#15 keeper clue: He builds a mean lego structure.

#16 keeper clue: He tolerates the reading light at night because he knows how much you NEED to read.

#17 keeper clue: He does not complain (much) about turning over his paycheck to you.

#18 keeper clue: He shares the same birthday as you and only asks for a game of golf.

Happy Birthday Honey, I knew you were a keeper from our first date and I am thrilled we get to raise sons, grow in love and do life together. There is no one I would rather be with than you.

My church, Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, had a youth week every year where the youth would learn about all of the jobs done in a church from Sunday School teacher, deacon, Music Minister and even the Pastor. During our days in high school, our church went through times when we would have interim ministers; youth, education, music and pastor.

As a senior, I was the interim pastor along with two of my fellow seniors, John Lively and Layne LeBaron. I think my sister, Elisabeth, was the Children’s Minister that year. (She too was pastor her senior year.)

The following is the “meditation” I wrote for the Sunday morning service, April 8, 1984:

In all times and in all ways, God has revealed Himself to man as an eternal God. In Exodus 3:14, GOd spoke to Moses in a burning bush saying

I Am who I Am; thus you shall say to the sons of Isreal, I Am has sent me to you.

In Mark 14:60-62, Our Lord Jesus is on trial before the Sanhedrin. It reads

And the high priest arose and came forward and questioned Jesus saying, ‘Do you make no answer to what these men are testifying against you?’ But He kept silent and made no answer. Again the high priest was questioning him and saying to him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? And Jesus said, ‘I Am and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.

God reveals himself in Revelations 1:8 through the triumphant Christ. He proclaims

I Am, the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

In each of these passages, God is showing that He is always the same and is always here.

To us, this time is an interim time; stuck between the now and the not yet but God sees it as the next step in His neverending plan. We see the timelessness of God spoken to Moses, spoken to the world by Jesus Christ and spoken to John by the glorified Christ. Where we find ourselves between the coming of the Holy Spirit and the triumphal return of our Lord so we find ourselves in an interim. We find Broadway in an interim but through the Holy Spirit we hear God say to us, “I AM!” He is saying the same thing to us He has said throughout the ages. I AM—WITH YOU—ALWAYS.

He sees those of us here as part of that unending line of faithful believers, all witnesses of HIS faithfulness reaching back to the beginning of time and forward to the time of His return.

In Hebrews 12:1-2 we are described as running a race with Christ as the starter and the finisher.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Broadway has been a part of that cloud of witnesses. I started out on the cradle roll and I can’t remember a time when Broadway was not ministering to me. Broadway gave me my first Bible before I could even hold it let alone know how important it would be in my growing up.

My cloud of witnesses ranged from ministers, Sunday School teachers, Training Union leaders, Mission Friends, GA and Acteen leaders and everyone else who through their Chrsitian lifestyle has shown a young girl how to grow to become a woman of God. I thank each one of you for that. I love this church, each one of you. My prayer is that Broadway would continue to be that kind of witness.
[Adult Amy says: IT STILL IS!!!]

As we the youth stand between childhood and adult hood, it looks like a long road out into the future. How can God and I ever make it? [Praise God, we have.] But then, we reflect back on our childhood and realize that in that same number of years, God has made it fly by.

As a church, it also seems like we are caught in the middle but God is looking at the whole picture and seems to say, “Look at what I can do but take it just one day at a time. ” God is with us on a day to day basis and we can live our lives through Him in that same manner.

Our God is not an interim God. He is with us now in our daily walk. He was with the church in the past and He will be with us forever. Colossians 2:6-7 tells us that we much be about our Father’s business.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

[I then gave an invitation to join the chruch which I will leave out.]

My 18 yr old self was right. As I stand here 26 years later, it is great to be reminded that God is not an interim God. He is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. 26 years from now when I am 70 years old. I pray that I will continue to hold on to the one who has brought me this far and the one who will one day lead me home.

Today, 4 years latter, my little guy started Kindergarten. We had a great day. He worked on pre-handwriting skills, pre-math, listened in on The Princess and the Goblin and colored a Texas flag for history.

I am excited to begin this wonderful journey through school with this cutie and am blessed to be able to continue to homeschool.


Here is a picture of the boys now..my times have changed.

It has taken a while to get to figureing out how to live sugar free. I eat fruit, a little bit of honey and limit myself to 4 packets of Splenda a day. I’ve learned to take my tea without sweetner but I have to have sweet hot cereal in the morning.

We are still homeschooling and I find I am a better teacher and parent when I am not eating sugar. My little guy will be in Kindergarten this year and I am looking forward to teaching another fella to read.

I am going to try to slow things down this fall and not let other peoples ideas of what we should be doing determine how we live our lives. Our homeschool group, which we have loved, is becoming more and more like school and less like a coop. Each year, there are more rules and more “regulations” and the cost of classes seem a bit steep and that is with my teaching each hour classes are offered. I am going to give it one more semester and see how things go.

There will be much excitement in the minivan this fall but for now, even if the public school kids are headed off to the big house, we are going to prolong school just a bit more and wait until September 1st to start school. So there is still time for some more swimming, more movies and more relaxation and more Ranger’s baseball.