The Faith of the Butterfly

"Look Katie, a yellow butterfly! It must be almost time for the spider lilies!" And so it was. When I first moved to our Outer Banks home there were no spider lilies in our yard. Then one day in September they showed up! They are an amazing, hearty and beautiful flower that multiply all over the yard. When you pick them and bring them inside they stay beautiful and fresh for many days. So every Sept, sometime in the first to second week they appear. Faithfully. An amazing thing about these delicate looking flowers is the rate which they grow. When that first butterfly appeared I went out to check. No shoots yet. But just two days later I saw another yellow butterfly and checked again. This time, just two days later, on Sept.1st, I picked a 24" stem and placed this first fruit of the spider lily harvest in a vase on my kitchen table. But this lily wasn't alone. Through out my yard these flowers are beginning their annual September dance.Some popping up in flower beds and other...well anywhere they want.
But as remarkable as these plants are there is something that to me is even more remarkable. How do the butterflies know they are coming? They show up before the buds push through the soil.(Spider lilies come up head first as there are no leaves on this plant, they are all stem and blossoms.)This to me is amazing.
The Bible tells us that we know how to read the signs of the weather. We can tell by looking at the sky that the next day will be fair or stormy. We can predict all kinds of things by just paying attention to the signs around us. When I saw that first yellow butterfly I knew the spider lilies would follow shortly. We have learned to rely so much on technology that sometimes we will miss the signs. When that great sunomi hit a few years back the animals and the native tribes knew to head to high ground before the wave hit.Many perished because they had desensitized themselves to the signs that nature was offering.
The Bible also tells us to watch.No one knows the day or the hour of Christ's return. However it also says that there will be many signs so that we will be ready.We have desensitized our minds and our spirit to the point where we don't pay attention and we loose touch with the very things that will reveal the coming of our Lord.We have hardened our hearts and look to all kinds of things to save us.We don't fell His breath as He leans in close to speak to us.
I want to be that butterfly, I want to be waiting when He comes. I want to be faithful before His arrival so that I don't miss out. I don't want to show up when it's all over. I want to be ready. As the spider lily shots up quickly so will the Son of Man come. I want to be a butterfly. Lord, help me to read the signs!

All in the Family

There is an interesting custom in my husband's family dealing with naming children. Many times family names have been uses as middle names when a new baby comes along. My husband has the unusual middle name French, one brother's middle name was Rowan,another Randler, another Talmage. My mother in law's middle name was Ross. And so it goes... Steve was one of eight children. Gwenn and Nick will catch up with them but not just yet. Today is a big day in our family. Gwenn and Nick announce the first child who will become part of their existing family in Haiti. On Monday, thirteen year old Fritzie will come home to live with Gwenn, Nick, Nia, Nico and Josiah. She will be part of the family. So it just seems right that she would carry on in the family tradition. God is cool like that. Steve's great grandmother was always called Nana Fritz. The new child in the family is named Fritzie. This to me is very cool and even now I have a few tears thinking about God's provision for us. He choose to put us in a family and give us a name. He choose to put Fritzie in this family and to give her a name.
(In first photo: Fritzie on right, in second photo Nana Fritz on right!)
Be sure to read Nia's blog introducing Fritzie to all of us!
http://sayfromaj.blogspot.com/

Abbie..the funny one

I love it when the grandchildren are here. We get to see Gretchen and Jon's kids a lot! Especially in the summer when Gretchen works at the restaurant. Today I went to check on Micah and Abbie who were playing in my new garden (which is under construction and not yet planted) There they were in the middle of the dirt pile. They were rubbing dirt on their arms and down their legs. Micah had dirt rubbed on to his cheeks, forehead and chin. I said "What are you doing?" to which for year old Abbie replied "I am pretending to be German." Home school kids have such wonderful, unusual imaginations.

Going to New Heights with the Ten Minute Challange

I know. I have written a lot lately about my ten minute challenge but it's my blog so I am comfortable with that. Today while do my time in my bed room I finished cleaning and had some time left. The rug did not need to be vacuumed, the sheets are still clean, the drawers are cleaned out....and then I looked up YES! the ceiling fan! I got out my rag, stood on the bed and cleaned the pattles on the fan.Just as I finished the timer rang! I LOVE THIS SYSTEM!!!

Evie went to the Zoo

Evie my 2 yr. old granddaughter went to the zoo today with her dad Chris. She saw a bear, a giraffe, and an elephant. She did not see a Lion. Her mommy Melody did not go with them. When asked if Cana went Evie replied "Probably not." Cana was drinking milk and Evie was going to take a bath because it was dark out and the soap was very slippery. No one fed the chickens today. Such was my wonderful conversation with Evie. The rest of the conversation was lost in the translation. What I want to know is : Did I get ANY of this right????

Not to whip a dead horse but...(not a comment on Nick's dinner choices)

I gotta tell you this "ten minute challenge" is transforming my life. Ok that and the fact that the Post Office is going broke so I am working less hours.http://current.com/items/90670712_obama-uses-money-losing-u-s-post-office-as-example-oops.htm I feel like my house is finally under control and it encourages me to press on further. So I went back to coupons. (thanks to the inspiration of another POM,*that's code for Parent of a Missionary:) http://robin-robinznest.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-is-crazy.htmlI haven't really got deep into it yet but I'm starting.Like right now. I have all my coupons and my scissors right here (do you think I am avoiding this task by rambling on on this blog? that is possible) And I am hoping to get back to E-baying AND I have great hopes to update my new business website. (simplycelebrate.biz) AND my biggest and scariest undertaking is a garden. Honestly, this scares me quite a bit.A lot actually. It's not that I don't think I can grow plants, I'm just afraid I will fail to keep up with it.I like to think of myself as a garden kind of girl. I have a container of fruit peels, coffee grinds and veggie scrapes on my kitchen counter cause we all know that garden kind of girls compost. I also don't know what I am doing and wish Gwenn lived a little closer. Like in America. But I am glad she is in Haiti because I love the water. And other stuff. So when the garden club discovers me I'll post pictures of my winning garden. When I get a camera that is. With money I saved by using coupons and ebaying and all that.

Going Deeper

I sit here on my 10 minute break from my ten minute challenge. (See previous post)I have to tell you, this works for me. At first I had to go thought the cycle a few times to actually get the rooms clean. Now I am finding time left at the end of my challenge to go deeper. Today, because I had just cleaned the bathroom yesterday it only took about 2 min. to wipe things down. This left me with about 8 minutes to straighten out the towels AND start to clean out the closet. Then, I had enough time left in my laundry time to dump out that HUGE bag of mismatched socks and match them up and THROW OUT ALL TO THE SOCKS THAT DID NOT HAVE A MATE! I added the porches today and was able to deadhead flowers, fix the little fountain and put away a few toys left out there.
Now it is time to add the upstairs into the cycle. That is pretty easy EXCEPT my office which is bad. Last night I spent a long time sifting through mountains of papers to give myself a jump start.
And Katie will be happy to know I cleaned out the TV cabinet matching videos with their cases and putting them back upstairs where they belong. There were 47 of them!