Little man has finally grown into all the super-cute Sunday clothes that we were given. We went and had his 18 month portraits made at Sears last week, so on Sunday I wanted him to wear one of those outfits. I had it laid out, and at the last minute, changed my mind. I put a little blue and grey vest and tie on him instead.

I am constantly amazed at how quickly my little man is growing up. It seems like just yesterday I laid eyes on him for the first time, and now, that same little boy runs across the house to plant huge, sloppy kisses on my face. Where has the time gone?

I received this comment the other day:

So many people that show their household notebooks talk about and link to Dawne Michelle’s cleaning schedule, but the link no longer works. Does anyone know if it is still up on the web somewhere?

It seems that Dawne Michelle’s blog is missing. That dissapoints me, as I really enjoyed reading her blog. She may have moved or renamed it, but I have yet to find her new blog if that is the case.

I have been wanting to update the Household Notebook page anyway, so it seems that now would be a good time to do so. My notebook changes periodically over time as my schedule changes, and as I find what works for me and what doesn’t.

Why is it that when you have company coming the time seems to fly? Mom and Dad arrived on Wednesday, and stayed through Sunday morning. Yet, as I look back, I can’t believe they’re gone already. We had a great visit with them, and Sam seemed to really enjoy seeing his Grandma and Grandpa.

We had another teen girl saved yesterday morning at church – what a blessing! I have really enjoyed seeing all these teens at church get saved. Their new joy and zeal is so contagious, and they are so fun to be around.

I’ve been mulling over several topics lately to blog about, and since they deal with so many different topics, I’ll be posting them as seperate blog entries.

Just a quick update. I don’t know how much I’ll be online this week and able to blog. I’ve not dropped off the face of the earth – it’s just nice to spend some time with my family!

God is really continuing to bless our church! Preacher wanted the trio (Stephen, our pastor’s wife, and I) to sing a song called “The Last Blood” to open the service. He told us later that the Lord laid it on his heart to open that way.

While we were singing, two girls came forward and accepted Christ as their personal Savior. What a blessing!

When we returned for the evening service and the baptism, there was another girl who was baptized. When she gave her testimony, she mentioned that she had accepted Christ after the morning service. Wow.

The Holy Spirit has been really working at our church lately, and it is absolutely wonderful.

A couple days ago I stopped by the music store to pick up a book for one of my students to play from for the Christmas recital. Naturally, they had to order the book. I decided that while I was there I would browse a little bit and see what other Christmas music they had in stock.

I found a book.
I liked the book.
I decided to get the book.

Since I have an account there, they scanned the book and I will pay for it in a month. It seems like lately many of the music books I pick up for myself are too jazzy or modern for my tastes, so eventually I just started previewing them. If I don’t like the book, no problem. I just return it, and I don’t have to worry about having to pay for a book I don’t want.

I will be purchasing this book, though. It’s wonderful! I already have 3 Christmas solo books that I use (rather extensively, I might add), but this one is a little unique. Each carol is set to classical music. It’s absolutely beautiful! Here’s more information about it:

Classical Carols II Arranged by Carolyne Taylor. For Piano Solo. Christmas. Music Book. Composed 1994. Published by Lillenas Pub Co. (MC-278)
See more info…

Anyway, I sat down to play through some of the rather advanced arrangements. I played through one and I thought, “That was a weird arrangement. I like it!” (It was an arrangement of Carol of the Bells with some really unique harmony that I just loved)

Later, I was telling Stephen about that particular arrangement, and how I love unique (and yes, sometimes weird) arrangements of songs. His answer? “You always have.”

That really made me think. Much of my classical music collection is “different” – basically meaning that I don’t have as much of the “typical” Bach and Beethoven and Mozart as I have lesser-known composers that write fun and exciting and different (and weird) music. Then I started wondering how it got that way.

Back when I first went to college, I used to listed to a lot of contemporary Christian music (which I’ll refer to as CCM from here on out). Unfortunately for me, though, it was not allowed at college. My response was to go buy classical music because I knew that I could listen to it. But when I bought the classical, I bought stuff that was really pushing the limit as far as the rules were concerned. Things that were too “upbeat” or “jazzy” that were still allowed (mostly) simply because the genre was classical.

Then it hit me. I’ve always bragged about how I never really went through a rebellious spell, but I did. I just never saw it for what it was. The entire time I thought I was complying with the rules, I was merely trying to find a way to do exactly what I wanted to do without getting in trouble.

Isn’t that a prime example of modern-day Phariseeism? Technically not breaking the rules, but still bending them to suit my own will and desires?

Ouch.

I’ve done that a lot in my life. I’ve even judged and condemned others for not following rules, and yet I was doing the same things; just without seeing it for the sin it really was.

In 1 Samuel 15, Saul disobeyed God by offering a sacrifice himself, when he was supposed to wait for Samuel to come offer the sacrifice. When Samuel finally arrived, here is what he said:

22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

God has serious consequences in store for us if we don’t obey Him, doesn’t He?

As for me liking unusual music – that’s fine. But it was my attitude toward those in authority and their rules about music that was wrong.

I watch my son try to get his own way while still technically “obeying” me and it is a reminder. A reminder that I need to obey my Heavenly Father fully and completely.

Holy are You, Lord. You are AMAZING!

Yesterday’s church services were unlike any I have ever attended. What started out as a “normal” Sunday quickly changed into an amazing day that glorified God like I have never seen in my life!

Our wonderful church has been running an average of 70 or so on Sunday mornings lately. Because we don’t have a huge number of people, our pastor teaches the adult Sunday School class. We’ve been studying Psalm 100. Preacher often will get so excited during Sunday School that by the time for morning service rolls around, he’s more than ready to preach. Yesterday was no exception. His message yesterday was a salvation message, like it has been the past couple of weeks. It was so neat to hear him preach yesterday – he had such liberty to preach. You could literally feel the presence of God in the service.

When Preacher gave the invitation, an 11-year-old boy came forward and accepted Christ. His family just joined the church 2 weeks ago. We left the service rejoicing.

When we returned for the evening service, we had a couple visit. The man and his wife were personal friends of Preacher and Teresa’s. They said that Preacher had “just dropped in” at their church a few weeks ago, so they were returning the favor. They came in unannounced. It was really neat. They have such unique testimonies – they were both trapped in religion (he was an AWANA leader, deacon, and I believe a Sunday School teacher as well, and she was in AWANA too). He got saved at age 38! One night at church, he left to go talk with someone about getting saved – and at the same time – the Holy Spirit nudged his wife’s heart telling her she was lost! They got saved on the same day at the same time in different rooms of the church, and neither one knew the other was getting saved. Spiritual twins, if you will. So last night, Preacher had him share his testimony.

Again it was evident that the Holy Spirit was at work. Preacher again had much liberty to preach. Several people gave their testimonies. One lady publicly apologized for being ashamed to admit that she had gotten saved. She had made a profession of faith and gotten baptized, then a while after that, actually got saved. She said she never told anyone because she was so afraid of what people might think of her.

When Preacher gave the invitation, he had Stephen and I sing, “I Bowed on My Knees and Cried ‘Holy.’” People almost immediately started coming forward. We had 5 people saved last night, and many others got right with God. One man got saved last night – he and his wife just joined the church last Wednesday. His wife’s brother has been attending Pilgrim with them, and all four of that family came forward; their two teenage kids both got saved. One of the teen boys from church came forward and got saved – we’ve been praying that God would set him on fire for Christ! And one of the boys from the boys’ home got saved last night as well. There were several people that had already accepted Christ, but had never gotten baptized, that wanted to.

I loved singing that song for the invitation. “I bowed on my knees and cried ‘Holy! Holy, Holy!’ I clapped my hands and sang ‘Holy! Holy to the Son of God!” It is such a powerful song, and it was such a blessing to be able to praise God in song last night while everybody was getting saved. Holy are You, Lord!

Families got right that we have been praying for for a long time. I have never seen such weeping and rejoicing and shouting in a church service. I don’t think there were very many dry eyes in the entire building! I know Stephen and I had a hard time singing for the tears that were streaming down both of our faces.

Our church is not one that is into a lot of the emotional side of things, but when you’ve been praying for someone for years, and they get saved, you can’t help but get a little emotional.

We just started a One Hour Watchers program about a month ago. Basically, people commit to read their Bibles and pray for one hour every day. It’s sort of a faith promise for our prayer time. The idea is to have someone from the church praying the entire 24 hours of the day. One of the things our church has been praying for is revival. I honestly believe that last night’s service is a direct result of the praying we’ve all been doing.

I also believe that last night’s service may be only a small sample of what God has in store for our church in the coming year.

We had 6 souls saved yesterday, and we have 13 people that will be baptized this coming Sunday!

With the temperatures finally lowering here in the Carolinas, I couldn’t justify running our air conditioner any longer. I’ve been wanting to open the windows, but the only windows I can really open are all on the east side of the house. That’s fine, except it doesn’t help blow a breeze through the house that much.

So I started thinking of how I could fix it. I tried turning fans on, but that didn’t help much. I wanted to open the windows on the front (west) side of the house, but since the couch was in the way, I couldn’t. Then I realized that I could move the couch. It was one of those “duh” moments.

I moved the couch away from the windows, and put Stephen’s recliner and my rocking chair there instead. I love the way the living room looks now. Really, I just like the change. It turns out that Stephen was planning on re-arranging the furniture this weekend too – the same way I had in mind! We’ll be bringing the wood box (we have a fireplace that we heat with during the winter) inside this weekend so it’s ready to go when it gets cooler, and the way we arranged the furniture is pretty much the only way that we can fit everything in the living room. Unfortunately, since I got overly ambitious about doing the living room by myself, I pulled a muscle in my back. It’s not excruciating or anything, but I am sore. Given my fibromyalgia, I really should have waited to have Stephen do it for me, but oh well. It feels good to have done something physical on my own for once, even if I’m paying for it today.

Then at 9:30 last night we began re-arranging our bedroom too. That looks great as well. It really makes the room feel a lot bigger, and I really like it this way.

Well, I better sign off now. We haven’t eaten lunch yet, it’s already 12:30, and I need to get to the bank before 2pm.

A recent thread on HP had me scrambling to Google.com to see what I could learn. I found the neatest websites where people had painted Scripture on their walls.

I felt pretty ambitious, so I typed up a verse (Psalm 119:105) that went with my bathroom theme (lighthouses) and went into the guest bath to paint. I painted the verse on the wall next to the vanity mirror – right above the light switches.

This is what the finished product looks like. I painted the lighthouse months ago, but I added the verse today. I am very pleased with how it looks. Now I’m brainstorming to see how I can incorporate verses into the rest of the rooms in my house.

Today is an absolutely beautiful fall day – sunny and a little breezy – and not sweltering hot. The weatherman this morning predicted temps in the upper 70′s, but it doesn’t feel quite that warm to me. Maybe that’s because the humidity is so low; I’m not sure.

I stepped outside a moment ago to take a couple more pictures of my sunflowers. I am just amazed how much they’re blooming! I got a couple small plants from a lady via Freecycle – the clump was a little smaller than a football. Today they tower above my head – Stephen and I are guessing that they’re close to 10 feet tall.