Some Art, Some Life, Some Spring

It seems like winter has dragged on, but I dare not complain as I was once quite accustomed to snow falling at times through April. That said, it seems like winter has dragged on around here! Thankfully, though, the sun is gradually making its appearance with more frequency than usual and the crocuses are popping up along with other random yellow flowers. The kids are giddy watching it all happen and I confess I am too!

We all love spring around here...what it represents, what it feels like, what it smells like. Since we spend most days at home, I try to bring bits of spring time decoration into our home--all with the help of some very creative little artists that share my last name. :)

I found these cute, old egg cups at the Salvation Army a few months ago. I just couldn't pass them up! When we dye our eggs before Easter maybe we will display them in these cute cups. You can't really tell from the photo but there is a man, woman, chicken, and some unknown design painted on them.

I try to display a good book on the kitchen counter that sort of represents whatever season we are in or that goes along with something we are doing in school. This book is another gem I recovered at the Salvation Army. "The Springs of Joy" by Tasha Tudor. So far, I have found 5 Tasha Tudor books at various thrift shops both here in MS and in RI. I can't even fathom getting rid of a Tasha Tudor picture book. Horrors. When Micah saw this book displayed he said, "Boy...I guess you really like Tasha Tudor, huh Mom?" LOL. Yes, son...I do. Her artwork is so lovely to look at and I love the innocence and simplicity of the children in all of her books. This is a book of poems.


James created this "fort" today. He told me the bad guys were in jail. He also drew the picture below. I LOVE this artwork, people. In case you didn't know...this is a family portrait. There are a few too many represented...not sure what kind of message James is sending me. He told me I am the one with the "sticking up kind of hair" and Judson is the tiniest round subject with only one eye. I find this so comical.


My sweet, dear, talented friend Claudia Windham painted this and gave it to me a while ago. I just wanted to take a moment to showcase it in my blog because I love it so and so love her. I love the colors, the subject matter, and most of all the person who painted it. She's pretty awesome!

A recent crafting adventure. Beads and glue. You can make everything better with some beads and some glue.

James has really been into forts lately. Everything turns into a fort. I mean everything. I found the toilet paper piled up in the bathroom strangely one day last week. Yep, it was a James fort. Today he made a fort out of three footstools. Yesterday the kitchen chairs were missing--yep..in the den as a fort. A few days ago I discovered James and Judson in a stuffed animal fort behind the couch. I'm just glad he's moved on from "booby traps." That stage did some damage!

This is what happens when James gets into his playmobil. I mean really gets into it.

Look at that sneaky little cute face! "Hmmm....how many teeny, tiny pieces can I possibly pull out on the floor for mommy to navigate through on her way out the door?"

Here is a shot of my Mom, Dori, and Grandmother on the day of my brother's wedding. We had a fun lunch at Cracker Barrel. Cousin Joseph was really into the biscuits. LOL.


I'll close out with this shot of me and my sweet Judson. What a stinker. What a ball of love. Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to SPRING!

Things I Love:

I love this green tea! My most favorite green tea I've ever tried. Plus it has the added benefit of giving a little energy boost and of course all the wonderful qualities of green tea. Very tasty.


Ezekial bread....how I love this stuff. It is pricey at almost $5 a loaf, but it is so delicious and filling. Here is a write up from the Food for Life website:

Ezekiel 4:9® Organic Sprouted Whole Grain Products are inspired by the Holy Scripture verse: "Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it..." Ez 4:9

We discovered when six grains and legumes are sprouted and combined, an amazing thing happens: a complete protein is created that closely parallels the protein found in milk and eggs. There are 18 amino acids present in Ezekiel 4:9® Organic Sprouted Whole Grain bread. Made from freshly sprouted organically grown grains, Ezekiel 4:9® Organic Sprouted Whole Grain bread is naturally flavorful and bursting with nutrients and is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and natural fiber with no added fat. Try it served warm to release its exceptionally rich nutty flavor.

This is *my* bread. Jason likes it too, but he prefers wraps if he's going to eat a sandwich. The kids would eat it, but don't love it, so I give them plain whole wheat bread. We probably couldn't afford to feed everyone in the family Ezekial bread anyway.

The new Passion CD! We have been waiting and waiting for the cd release ever since we returned from Passion in January. It is all of the music used over Passion 2010 and a few extras. Fantastic! I listened to this new cd several times this past Sunday on my 8 hour drive to and from Meridian. As soon as I heard the first track I immediately went right back to the experience of being at Passion. Very thankful for this CD.

Passion 2010

I was privileged to attend Passion 2010 during the first week in January. This is a 4 day conference/worship experience for high school seniors and college aged students. When I first heard about Passion, I wanted to go so badly, but thought there would be no way for me to attend. Cost, timing, and most of all...childcare....were major hindrances. However, I felt certain that God wanted me to get away from the normal routine of life and focus on Him and hear from Him. We began praying for a way for me to attend and I am happy to report that I was indeed able to go.

Here is a recap of my Passion 2010 experience I wrote as soon as we returned:

This past week/end at Passion completely blew my mind. I will never be the same. I guess one is never the same anytime one has an encounter with the living God. Wow. 20,000+ students and adults with hands raised high praising our God in one accord. It was truly beautiful and made me completely lose my fear of death. Does that make sense? I was just ready to be with Jesus, b/c surely as awesome and wonderful as that was...heaven will be infinitely sweeter still.

I'm so so grateful I got to go. God is SO very good to enable me the opportunity to solely focus on worshiping Him and hearing from Him without the distractions of children or other obligations. I had all this bottled up emotional response to God that I haven't let out publicly like that in several years. Hope that makes sense. The first day was just shocking. I was gripped by the very first video presentation which was filled with quiet acoustic piano music and written words of scripture on the screen...the Gospel message. I was shocked at how huge Passion was and remained in a state of bewilderment.

The second day was a time of personal breaking. God used all the speakers and music of that day to make me completely broken over my complacency about Him and my shallow and weak worship of Him. That was my cry day. LOL. Seriously, though, I had to apologize to the students for all my slobbery tears, b/c they just would not stop. It was ok, though. I was in good company. :D

After dealing with my own personal sin and getting right with God, led to the third day: a sweet, overflowing joy-filled day and night with the ability to worship Him with a clean heart. It was amazing. AMAZING. It culminated with John Piper preaching one of the most powerful messages on the Glory of God I have ever heard. Ever. I think it will take a year to fully unpack it, but essentially the message was all about how God does everything for His glory and that is a GOOD thing. And how when I see His Glory and rest in it ....well just about how we are a part of the Gospel story...that God is using us.. "working out our salvation" to bring Glory to His name and proclaim Himself to the nations, etc. etc. etc. And then the see the cross as that beautiful junction in the middle of it all where Jesus absorbed all our wrath...whew. If I could describe the moment in the sermon in that arena when Piper got to the cross in one word it would be a collective TREMBLE. Best though, was that after hearing the word explode in our hearts and seeing Christ revealed in our minds, we were able to WORSHIP Him in truth and in Spirit and I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever experienced anything so mind blowing in my 31 years. Oh how sweet. There was complete liberty to worship God with your whole being and no one cared. No one cared! Because we were all doing the same thing.....reaching our souls up to God offering everything we had for Him. It was so incredible I pray I never forget the moment. I wanted it to continue forever and ever but we did have to end the service.

However. After each evening service there was a "late night" where a band played in the arena for an hour. That night was Hillsong United. Whoa. I haven't really listened to much of their music in the past but now I am in love. So the Lord graciously gave yet another opportunity for sweet worship of Him. I was thrilled in my heart that we had most of our group decide to come and explode in worship of the one true God. Jason didn't go b/c he was weary, but almost all of the rest of us came and sat together and just had a sweet freeing time.

Usually I am behind a piano or keyboard and while I am certainly able to worship, every once in a while it is just so precious to be able to not worry about music or chords or whatever and just freely worship Him. So I'm so thankful for those 4 days of that.

The last day (morning really) was just a sweet time of fellowship as a group and reflection on all that God had done at Passion. I was so proud of our group..both college and HSers were open to what God was doing and responsive to Him. We all feel like we have been through something MAJOR together...something life altering that we will remember until we die. I am thankful...so thankful to God that He permitted me to go and be with my husband and be with our youth. It was great to really know their hearts and connect with them, where before I struggled with this and with my own personal vision for youth ministry. Now I can't tell you how excited I am for what God will do in 2010. The Lord has given both me and Jason some clear direction for our personal involvement with LV students and I am praying for a mighty work of God at our church.

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Last night we had a "sharing time" with all the students and adults who attended. I was reminded yet again of the wonderful things I learned and experienced there and how thankful I am I was able to go.

Since returning from Passion, many many things have been happening that can only be explained as God. I look forward to sharing them with you all over time. :)

Much love to all!

The Hardage Holiday Home

The decorations are humble and the theme (if there is one) is "Things That Make Us Smile". This is how we Hardage's decorate our home for Christmas:

I love vintage Christmas decorations. I'm always on the lookout at the local thrift shops.

One of many German ornaments my brother, David, sent to us while stationed there for several years. These are very delicate and have sweet, tiny little details that make them so fun to hang.

This is a play area for the kids. We made a rogue garland and hung lights around the shelves.

Also from Germany. Also from my brother David. This is probably my most treasured Christmas decoration. It is a nativity pyramid. It is supposed to have tiny taper candles which, when lit, make the pyramid spin.


"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care....."

The play area in the daylight. Our garland is rather sparse.

Another favorite nativity ornament.

This is our newly inherited Christmas Village. Aunt Linda passed along her collection to some *very* excited nephews and niece! We had so much fun putting it all together. Judson tells me to turn on this "Kissmas" every night. :)

An ornament from my childhood. Fun to hide a special present inside.

Dori's artwork. We have been studying the American artist/illustrator Tasha Tudor this term and I made the kids draw a picture using her "style" of making a detailed border around the main picture. Dori drew a family cutting down a tree and the children dancing with excitement.

An ornament from Jason's childhood. It is quite old and was handmade by one of his relatives.

We love candles around here...any sort of extra light, really. I caught Micah trying out the candle snuffer yesterday. It now resides out of reach.

Yet another German ornament.

Ok, this is a garland we made this week. Wow. Did you guys know how much patience is required to make real garland? Let me tell you: LOTS! I've made swags and wreaths before, but never a long garland. I discovered that these things were probably done over several evenings or days at a time in the old days before Lowe's sold them already made. You know, it was like a family project...or something. Anyway, I really wanted to try it and I looked up how to do it online and basically we spent one morning making a garland and that was our school. Dori and Micah actually really enjoyed making it and we worked on our math skills by figuring up how many bunches we would need to make to equal 12 feet and how much twine we would need to cut and how many more hours it would take at the rate of 5 feet per hour and how many more minutes Mom would remain sane if 25 mins=slightly insane. Yes, it was quite a mathematical day! It was fun. Messy--but fun. Oh, and the house smells great from it too.

Another shot of the homemade garland

And here is the tree. This year we moved it into the Den, since we don't heat the Living room and it seemed sad to look at our pretty tree through the window of the door. We are so enjoying our tree....even though I must say I had grand dreams of waiting until Christmas eve to buy a tree and have family and friends over that morning to decorate. Yeah, it was a crazy idea. An idea I hope to implement one day, but and idea that my husband nixed before I could even get the words out of my mouth! Ha!

Finally, here are our collection of Christmas storybooks. The whole wall of windows behind the tree has books on every ledge. Thrift shops are another great resource for classic and beautiful Christmas books.

Well....there you have it. The Hardage Holiday home. I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year! Love to you all!

Our Love Story

Love. Loverly love. Lover love love. Yes, this blog post will be ALL about ooey-gooey (well maybe not all) romantic, girly stuff. If you get sick at your stomach with such things....stop reading now!

I had never met anyone like Jason Hardage. Ever. The first time I remember hearing his name was in the cafeteria at William Carey University. I had recently interviewed to spend the summer of my freshmen year serving *somewhere* in the US on mission. I passed by Jason and Pamela Coker's (then Leonard) table and Jason stopped me and said, "I know where you are going (he was in charge of the interview process and had a heads up) and who is on your team and you are gonna like it." The BSU summer missions program allowed you to select 3 preferences of service. I picked Boston, MA first, Washington, DC second; and The Pacific Northwest third. In all honesty, I didn't really want the northwest team...I only picked up b/c my friend Andy Winn went on and on about his earlier adventures there and how it made sense, b/c that team always needed a pianist. But secretly....I really really wanted the Boston slot. Kind of ironic I would later spend 8 years of my life in the Northeast, don't you think?

Back to the cafeteria...I distinctly remember Jason saying, "mel, you are not going to believe your team leader's testimony. It is AWESOME. And he is a BIIIIIGGGG guy!" Ha! I was definitely intrigued. My curiosity was sparked and I waited a few days until I was officially told that yes, I would be serving as the pianist for the northwest youth revival team, summer of 1997.

Then I got a letter in the mail. The return address was "Yellow Dog Road, Senatobia, MS." Who in the world was this??? This is what I read:

Dear Melanie

My name is Jason Hardage, and I'm one of your partners for summer missions 97. I am writing because I thought it would be a good idea to start some correspondence with the other team members in order to make known some prayer requests and also to get to know one another some before the summer starts. I want to let you know that I have begun praying daily for our team members individually and also for the people of the states in which we will be ministering. It is my prayer that God will do a mighty work through us this summer.

In Christ,
Jason Hardage

P.S. see Ephesians 3:14-21



Who is the world was this serious guy? I was impressed....and excited about serving with him. When I finally met Jason in person, he had his nose in the Bible and rarely looked up for anything else! He was serious! (those of you that know Jason know that he is really the most playful guy....but he really was super serious about our mission that summer).

We set off for WA and OR and spent a glorious, life changing summer serving churches and people of the region. Jason preached his first sermons on this trip and I lead in worship for the first time in my life. Truly, this trip was the great foundation for our lives together in ministry. Only we didn't have a clue at the time!

Summer Missions 1997: Our team

As I said in the beginning of this post...I had NEVER met anyone like Jason Hardage. I grew up "in the church" and had a very legalistic understanding of the Gospel..of grace...of our life in Christ. Jason shot all my legalistic ideas to pieces. I would counter, he would quote scripture. I would argue, he would ask me where in the Bible I came up with this or that idea. It didn't take too many weeks into the summer for me to stop arguing and begin to trust in his wisdom. He was a newer Christian, too, and I was embarrassed that I had been a believer in Christ for many years, and yet he knew the Word so thoroughly.

He loved those people, those young people we ministered to..he shared truth and the Word with them and I watched in awe thinking...man I wish I could be like that!

Near the end of the summer, I took a face first fall right onto a giant rock and knocked myself out. Jason scooped me up and carried me to rescue. I ended up breaking my nose and busting my face up pretty nasty and had to fly home early to have surgery. I truly loved these 3 guys that I had spent that summer with and just knew that we would remain close. I recall over a campfire in Castle Rock, WA...saying to all 3 of them, "I want you guys to be in my wedding." Who knew I would marry one of them?!?!

It would be almost a full year later that I would run into Jason Hardage again. And although we kept in touch a few times through email, we were really not a part of each other's lives. But at a Baptist college conference on the coast of MS, we met up once again. At the time, I wasn't really where I should have been in my walk with God. I was rebelling in some areas and actually almost didn't come to the conference....mainly because I knew I would be convicted in those areas of my life.

I drove down on the second day of the conference and as soon as I walked up, all my Carey friends were telling me that some big, huge, blonde-haired guy was looking for me. Hmmm. Seriously, probably 5 or more different sets of friends gave me this message that Jason Hardage was looking for me.

We finally saw each other and Jason ran over and gave me a HUGE full-on hug. Now, this is important to note because the *entire* time we were serving on summer missions together...Jason never touched me more than maybe a sideways hug every once in a while. Even more curious, while we were embracing, he spun me around. Whoa. I do remember thinking something was weird about Jason doing that, but I put it aside. We spent the next 24 hours sitting on rocking chairs and benches talking about everything under the sun. I didn't tell him I was seeing someone. I didn't really go into my personal struggles, but we had a great time and I was reminded of the things of God and how I loved ministry and it was just good.

The next day after the conference was over, I received this email:

Mel-dawg,
I can't tell you how good it was to see you over LTC. I wonder if you will ever read this email...anyway...well....I don't know what this means, well, I guess I do know what it means....I hope you don't run off and marry that law student...because...well, because I'd really like to get to know you better. Not the whole romantic thing. At least not yet. I'm sure I've said a mouthful...I wonder if you're shocked...I wonder if you'll even get to read this email.

Mark 10:45
love in Jesus
Jason

I sat in the Carey library reading the email over and over and over again. Tears started to stream down my face because I knew that God was using Jason to draw me back to him. I printed it. I ran to my dorm room to show my best friend Emily and try to figure out what in the world I would say in response. To say I was shocked was such an understatement! In my mind, Jason Hardage was a serious Bible scholar....he was a preacher for crying out loud! He was Godly, I was not. He walked with God and I struggled along. Yes, I was in shock. And I had to end the other relationship before I could even respond. And get right with God. It was overwhelming.

No lie, this was my exact response 2 days later:

Jason-

ok.

Love,
Mel-dog

Poor guy. I was so cruel! :D LOL And this was his reply:

sweet and simple....
or you were really busy.....
I prefer sweet and simple....
Lord Jehova reigns in majesty !!!!!
I think I'm gonna go read my Bible, thinking about you has that affect on me...that's a very good thing.

know that I am before the Father on your behalf
Jason


Whew. What a start to this "relationship!" We continued emailing back and forth...Jason pretty much practicing his sermons on me, lol, and me going over each email with a fine tooth comb looking for anything romantic or lovey dovey. And to be honest, during the beginning....there wasn't much! But we so enjoyed talking on the phone and emailing and encouraging each other. This lasted about 9 months. Long time for a girl to wait, y'all. Hello, can I get a witness??! I was careful not to gush to him or reveal my romantic feelings for him...I kept them mostly to myself or talked to Emily about it. I started to write them all down on little slips of paper, too, and collected them. Later, when we were engaged, I gave them all to Jason in a special wooden box that he had given me from his mission trip to Moldova, so he could read what I had been thinking and praying all those months.

He held his romantic intentions close to his chest. I waited. I admit fully that I was impatient, but finally the waiting paid off. Just when I was ready to tell him I was ready for him to make a decision about our "relationship" and what in the world was going to happen with us (remember, no kisses, no dates, no I love you, no fluffy, "you are so pretty/special/whatever" etc. It was rough!) I received a handwritten letter in the mail at my Carey mailbox dated November 8, 1998--almost 9 months since the initial email from him. I know I it is sort of whack to put this out for the world to see, but I really don't care. Here it is:

My dearest Melanie--
My first snail mail letter to you, and thus, it should be an important one--it is. Despite the importance from whence this letter will reveal my heart, I must let you know where I am as I pen these words---in the bath tub! I hope you are blushed, or laughing, or both!

There is so much I need to say from the depths of joy and from the blackness of fear and doubt. I write these words prayerfully.

I know I have been aloof and uncertain about my feelings for you, and I can't say that I've not struggled with the will of God--but Mel, I take full responsibility for our relationship and I believe that it's time to move on in our relationship....that is, into a deeper relationship. God has led me to this decision and I know it's not for heartache or for pain, but for His Glory and our success and future. I love you! You are such an encourager, beautiful flower, an expression of grace, a faithful friend, you make me love God more.

On Thursday, I asked you to go to China with me and you said, "let's go." That sealed my heart!--that you would follow....I pray God leads.

I know that we both have our faults, things that we both have not so much revealed as of yet. It's easy not to see those faults when we are so far away, but as God continues to redeem our character, we will overcome even these.
I must go!
I do love you!
Jason


It is so emotional to type that out. Tears are streaming down my face now just as they were then...to think of God's gracious hand in forming us, putting us together, and to think of where we are now on the other side of that letter having served in various places in NY and RI and now back in MS. I am filled with emotion and thanks to God.

A month later he finally kissed me. Sorry, I know that is TMI. Six months later we were engaged. And on November 6, 1999 we were married.



Maybe you are reading this thinking that I am bragging or thinking that we've had ideal situations or something like that.....let me tell you we have fought for our marriage tooth and nail. Tooth. And. Nail! We have faced trials, financial strain, uncertainty, crisis times between the two of us..losses, upheaval. We've looked at some of those faults square in the eye that Jason mentioned way back in 98. There have been babies. LOTS OF BABIES! LOL. And there has been pain, failures, doubts, etc. I certainly don't boast in ourselves...in our own ability to "make it work." No, I boast in Christ...in His everlasting grace and mercies that are new every morning. He alone has preserved this union and all glory goes to Him.

I wrestled with whether or not to post these very personal bits about our life so far together. If you are on Facebook, you have seen the endless amount of pictures I have posted from our 10 years together (and some from before!). My purpose in posting all of that was to 1. give Glory to God for our marriage and life together, and 2. publicly show my love and affection for Jason; and 3. hopefully encourage others.

The truth is, since I've posted the pictures on Facebook, I've receiving a bunch of private messages from folks who indeed, have been encouraged and reminded of their own love for their spouse...for the beauty of God's provision...for His faithfulness in their own lives. Praise God for this! My hope and prayer is that if you are reading this, you are also reminded of His lovingkindness in your life, and His goodness.

To close, I want to post the lyrics to a song I wrote several months ago in anticipation of our upcoming 10 year anniversary. I had been reading through the book of Ruth at the time and it sparked some musical/lyrical thoughts. Now that you have read that hand-written letter from Jason to me all those years ago, you will also see more of the background and foundation for the song.

"Follow"

You asked me once..
so long ago
If I could stay or
if I could go

I told you then
and meant it well
"I will follow you
and humbly dwell."

Riches of this world have never
made me wish for more
I am happy to be forever
under His grace....and to be yours

I will go where you go
I will live where you live
and we will dance into the moonlight praising God for all He did.

Tears come down
when I think about how
after all these years and
pain and tears
we'd be where we are now

And when we breathe
that final breath
we will know
we'll know
we've been beautifully blessed

Riches of this world have never
made me wish for more
I am happy to be forever
under His grace....and to be yours

I will go where you go
I will live where you live
and we will dance into the moonlight praising God for all He did.


I love God. I love Jason. I stand in awe of His mighty hand through the past 10 years and give all glory to Him.

Thanks for reading.

Cereal and Rain

This will be brief. Two things: Judson dumped out 5 full boxes of cheerios, corn flakes, bran flakes, and rice crispies all over the kitchen floor today. And it's raining.

Sigh. But I'm still smiling! :) I have fought a blah attitude allll day. I'm still fighting, too! I'm hopeful for this evening when we are all together as a family and can read and pray together. Tomorrow Jason is off. I'm so thankful since it has been several weeks in a row that he hasn't had a day off. I'm looking forward to a relaxing day.

Hope everyone is having a better attitude on this dreary day than me! Love you all!

Day in the life: October 16--19th

Yes, I know that the title says "Day in the life" and I have listed several dates to cover. It's just that so many awesome things happened in the past couple of days I have to share multiple "days" but "Days in the life" sounded weird. Onward.

Friday, October 16

A much anticipated day. Words cannot possibly express how much so. They really cannot. But I will try. You see I have not had a haircut since September of 2008. September of Two Thousand Eight. Are you grasping this? I am not the type of woman who gets her hair done (or hair did as they say around here in MS) every other week or anything, but folks....that is more than a year! I think I have set my own personal record. I mean, I have definitely gone a looong stretch between haircuts, but never a year! Never more than a year! I'm not sure what that says about me really. Perhaps it says that my last hair cut was SO good, that it simply lasted that long. Nah. It more likely says that I procrastinated and that the kind or haircut I prefer cost $$. So.....I waited for Friday, October 16th with great anticipation. My friend Ann recommended her stylist and salon and "Rachel" so graciously got me in quickly. I showed her a picture of some famous person that looked like the hair I wanted to try to achieve.

To sum up: Rachel was awesome! My hair is red now and very different from what it was and I just love it! So fun! My children were grinning ear to ear when they saw me and Dori hugged me really hard and long and said she LOVED it. She is a girl after my own heart. :) James asked if he could change his hair to blue. Sigh. I told him maybe. For Halloween. Or something. This is a recent photo of my new hair do:





After my wonderful and lengthy hair appointment, I went to Longview for "Secret Church" with our youth. This was something new that Jason and David (Jr high pastor) cooked up as an intense time of worship, discipleship, and preaching....but also with some fun thrown in too! It started at 6:30 and ended at midnight, but I left with James and Judson around 10:30. Secret Church was a great success....I was so encouraged to hang out with our youth and to get to know them a little better. We had my friend Stephen's band "Philadelphia" come in and lead in worship, and Jason, David, and intern Vlad all preached/taught for roughly one hour each. As I said, "secret church" was not just a run of the mill lock in! Around 9pm, I helped lead the students in a debate. Our topic was "God cannot exist when evil exists in the world." I was very impressed with our young thinkers and even Dori participated. It was great fun!

I was pretty tired when we got home, but it was worth it to keep the kids out late and just really invest in these students God has placed in our lives. I'm very grateful for the experience and hope we do something like it again soon.

Saturday, October 17

Woke up with my new 'do....still amazed at how different I looked! I got ready for something very exciting and also slightly crazy: a photo shoot. Yes, you read that correctly. Craziness I know! Here the deal....as you know I am ssssllllllllooooooowwwwwlllllyyyyy working on recording an album of my original music. Yes, it is taking forever and won't speed up anytime soon as these things just take time. Especially when time is short and money is shorter! LOL But, one of my "far off" thoughts had been to get my friend Katie Dunlap to take some photos for the cover of the hypothetical album. I saw that Katie's photography business had really taken off (we are old friends from 10 years ago when her husband Brad and Jason were in seminary together) and absolutely loved her work and her style. Here is her website so you can see some of her work: http://www.capturebykatie.com/

A few months ago, basically right when I started the recording process, I sent Katie a message inquiring about the possibility of her ever coming to Memphis to do work here. Honestly, I didn't really think it would be possible, but she wrote me back that "yes, actually, she knew of several who wanted sessions and would probably be here in the fall." Well....long story short....we had a photo shoot Saturday morning, and despite feeling a tiny bit silly for doing something like that before I even have an album with which to put a cover photo on....it was a lovely and wonderful experience. Katie and her fun assistant Alissa (not sure if I'm spelling that right, but I know she will forgive me!) met me at Rhodes College at 10am. I had never been to Rhodes and let me tell you it is gorgeous! Think old, gray stony buildings with curved, cut out architecture. Simply fabulous! It was a bit blustery, but not too bad and all three of us had a totally fantastic time. It was fun to do something like that...no children, no obligations....I had my rockin new hair, lol, it was just a wonderful time. Katie was a great encouragement to me, regarding my music and my pursuits...reminding me that God has gifted each of us in special ways and it is ok to celebrate that...share that....embrace that. I struggle at times thinking that I am ridiculous for writing music or for trying to record it. It is hard to explain this. I fully embrace my role as wife and mother and cherish it. And I would never do anything to jeapordize it. However, Melanie is also a person who lives and breathes music. I love to write and share what I've written! It was such a blessing to me to hear from Katie and to share with her those things. I look forward to seeing those photos and also to watching Katie's business flourish as I'm sure it will! We are blessed women to have husbands so supportive and encouraging of our endeavors.

I left Rhodes on a big high...definitely. But wait, the day was not over and there were more awesome things to come! David and Claudia Windham (again, David the jr. high pastor at Longview) were given Memphis Grizzlies tickets for Saturday night but they decided to give them to us and TO KEEP ALL FOUR CHILDREN so we could enjoy a night out together. Whoa! What a blessing. God is so good and gracious to us and I am so thankful. I have so enjoyed getting to know David and Claudia. They are such a sweet couple....about to have their first baby in December! James has taken to "Mr. David Windham" as he calls him. He runs up and hugs him every time he sees him and even told me the other day that he is "James Windham." Hahahaha. Dori is very fond of Claudia as they sharing a love of knitting and art. Claudia can knit faster than you could buy something at a store..and it's much cuter! I couldn't say enough about this special couple. They came over, fed our children, played with them, watched a movie with them, and got them to bed! Any mom knows how much of a blessing it is to retreat with your hubby knowing your children are being loved and cared for by capable hands.

We had a blast at the Grizzlies game. It was at the FedEx Forum, which I had never been to, and the Grizzlies won! We had *great* seats....and as a bonus, got to sit with another family from church, the Wilson's.

Sunday, October 18th

I always look forward to Sundays. This one was no different. My 10th grade girls Sunday School class did not disappoint and my friend Kristin, who co teaches with me, did a great job teaching a much needed lesson on totally relying on God and not thinking too much of yourself. After that was a great worship time and preaching. After a relaxing afternoon, we came back for J's Spiritual Disciplines class. Every week I see how UNdisciplined I am, but I left encouraged and hopeful for the future and my own struggles regarding being disciplined.

It has been unusually cold here in north MS. Seriously! We had our first wood stove fire on Saturday and believe me...we needed it! We haven't yet filled up our propane take for the heat in the back portion of the house, so Sunday night we decided to sleep as a family in the den and keep the wood stove going all night. This was both extremely wonderful and fun....and a bit of a nightmare!

I made up the sleeper sofa for me and J and pulled Micah's full size mattress on the floor by the stove....turned it sideways so the kids could all sleep on it. THis was a good plan in theory. More on that later.

The kids were so sweet and so thrilled we were ALL sleeping in the den. Such fun for them. Micah said, "mom, I feel so happy in my heart right now." Awww. He doesn't say sentimental things like that often (very much like his daddy!) but I thought it was so sweet for him to say that and I'm so glad we did it, despite problems. LOL.

So J cranked up the fire. Really cranked it up. REALLY. :P And for about an hour we were sweating! And each and every child were wiggling like they had ants in their pants. And fussing. And crying. And Judson kept climbing out of the playpen I had set up for him. And James kept getting up. And Micah kept wiggling. Are you getting the picture? :D Never fear, though....we got smart and opened up some doors to cool things down a bit and finally, mercifully, everyone got to sleep. We slept surprisingly well, too! I wonder if we will do this again tonight......!

Monday, October 19th

We woke up with the sun, which is just glorious. Especially since these parts haven't seen much sun lately. The older children completed home schooling duties and I was able to squeeze in some practice time at the piano for some music me and aforementioned Stephen are playing for a fundraiser soon for the Hope House of Memphis. This organization helps children and families who have AIDS. This is the event:

I met with Stephen at Longview to rehearse for about 2 hours. I'm really excited about this opportunity to play and sing. The songs we've selected are just....really good. We are both going to do some original stuff too, which is always fun. As everything that happens in my life....I'm not really sure just how it happened that we are doing this, but again, God is good! It is a joy to follow where He leads. I'm glad to participate in such a noble cause.

After we practiced, I retrieved the children from Ma Jane's and we came home and had a BIG snack. I have this tray that I pull out from time to time and put all sorts of snacky foods on that the kids can grab when they want. You know...things that don't spoil, things that are healthy and things that aren't very messy. I made some peanut butter sandwiches and decided to put to use these super cute fall cookie cutters. It is amazing how excited children get with just the smallest of pleasures! They were thrilled that I made leaf, pumpkin, and turkey cut-out sandwiches for the tray! I have to admit, they were pretty cute. :P

We haven't finished this day, of course, but if the past several days are any indicator, this evening will also be great. I am so thankful to God for His blessings and gifts in my life. Whew. What a weekend! I hope all of you are enjoying fall this year as much as I am.