great read aloud...

Vinegar Boy -



We are enjoying reading this aloud with Matt and Bria. Really takes them to the events surrounding Christ on the cross.

I Heart Saturday AND......shipmates

The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son Francis Kirwin Seeley, ship's cook first class, U.S. Navy, is missing following action in performance of his duty and in the service of his country. The department appreciates your great anxiety, but details not now available and delay in receipt thereof must necessarily be expected. There has been no casualty report concerning your other son, Lewis Everett, ship's cook first class, U.S. Navy.

Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs,
Chief of Naval Peronnel
Arlington, VA 4:14 pm

This was the telegram sent to my Great Granmother Seeley (my Dad's grandmother) in 1943. Later she would learn that her son Francis "Bob" Seeley was dead.



My Great Uncle Lewis, the surviving brother, wrote this book regarding the sinking of his ship and the passing of his brother. It is such a great book and easy to read. (available here at amazon.com) I love that he was brave enough to face his sorrows in retelling the story of these brave men. I will read it again this weekend and think of not only these men, but all of the American soldiers who have died fighting for our country.



On September 11, 1943, Lewis E. Seeley and his brother Bob, were serving their country aboard the destroyer USS Rowan, DD 405. Shortly after one in the morning, the ship was torpedoed by German e-boats, and sank in forty seconds. Two hundred and four men died almost instantly. Bob was among them. Wracked by grief and guilt, Lewis spent the next four decades trying to forget that night. But eventually, he found himself unable to ignore or resist the insistent nightmares of that night. He realized that to put the ghosts to rest, he would have to seek out the company of his shipmates to help him remember.

a christmas favorite......Books

Molly is a dear friend of mine at Valley Blogging. She is sharing rich Christmas thoughts, verses and quotes this month. When you have time alone, get a cup of something hot and enjoy a deep nugget for this time of year. She has invited us to share our favorite Christmas books.


I love this retelling of the Christmas story. Chuck Swindoll brings insights into all of the characters. It is one of our family favorites. We read a chapter each week - Ch. 1 focuses on Mary, Ch. 2 Joseph and Ch. 3 Gabriel.


I read of one review that read,

"Chuck Swindoll gave the most understandable meaning I've ever read of why Jesus was the only way God could offer salvation to a fallen world. It has given me a fresh approach to this Christmas season and I highly recommend it."


It is a little over Bria's (7 years) but fine for Matt (9 years). This is a small book with gorgeous pictures and makes a wonderful gift. Also, I noticed that Insight for Living has a radio theater version of the book. Im going to check it out!

I Heart Saturday AND......this extraordinary VP pick

Summer Reading

Summer reading has been a sucess in our home. The library has such a great reading progam every summer. They give out great certificates. During our current extra lean times, we have been able to eat free at Chic-Fil-a, frozen yogurt, In-N-Out and Rubio's :) I love to read in themes during the summer since most of our reading during the year is surrounded by our history and science topics. So, before camping Bria read...

Fourth of July weekend we read....

During music lessons and before the beach we have been looking at this book,

The kids have loved going to the library this summer.

and while our summer reading has been so much fun, I have yet to buy a stich of curriculum for next year. So, while I end up waiting for my school books to arrive, I will be at the library reading borrowed books :)

Surprisingly Talkative

Constantly reading God's word and Praying. That is what I need to do. Every wacky emotion, every concern, every hope - I just need to talk to Him about it and in the organic God book, I reminded that God is surprisingly talkative.

" Every so often, I will find a sentence or phrase that reads as if it was written specifically for me that day. Mark 6:31 contains one of these gems. "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." Within the context of this chapter, Jesus is speaking to the disciples after they learned that their friend John the Baptist had been slaughtered, but within the context of my own life, its as if Jesus is issuing a personally engraved invitation to me."

"Come. Away. A Secluded Place. Rest. A While."

"A challenge to slow down and take some much needed alone time. A reminder to close my eyes to the immediate demands of life in order to get a better view of the eternal. Though the invitation doesn't say how long to stay, I know from experience that resting will be well worth my while. "

"The Scripture comes alive. God speaks."

This is what I have been missing - I have not done that enough this summer, or really enough - period. But I will.

Never Mistake Wit for Wisdom

"As I look for wisdom in my daily life, I find that it often displays itself in the simplest of answers and the most concise of responses. Yet all to often, I see wisdom mistaken for clever sayings and cute quotes. These one-liners make their way into eternally forwarded emails and are even quoted on church signs and in leadership circles. You probably recognize a few of them:
- Let go and let God
- God grades on the cross, not the curve
- God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called

While these contain some truth, never mistake wit for wisdom. "

"Phrases like these get under my skin because even if they are fun to read, they don't require reflection. They may contain a "ha-ha" moment but no real "aha"moment. "

Meal Planning

As much as I consider making meal after meal and going shopping and then going shopping again such a chore and sometimes in the way of other things I want to do, there are seasons where this part of being mom is actually enjoyable. I love to read recipes in my books, my grandmas cookbooks and my mother-in-laws cookbooks.

This is my favorite cookbook right now - Six Ingredients or Less by Carlean Johnson. My Aunt Connie gave it to me last Thanksgiving and most everything I have made has been easy and yummy. Nate (14 year old) wanted to make dinner the other night and looked through this book. It only required going to the market to get two extra items and he was able to make Panko Chicken Dijon. He did a great job and it tasted awesome.

Over the years I have subscribed to Rachel Ray mag, Cooking Light and others. I usually pick 2 or 3 new recipes to try and then fill in the rest of the week with your standards, i.e. Thursday Spaghetti Night, tacos, BLT's, pizza (on our date nites), salad night (when I make a special dessert :) ) If I have not looked through recipes due to a crazy week - Trader Joe's never fails to inspire me. Just running through that store is fun and provides lots of quick meal ideas that really taste great.

This week I found Bria going through her kids cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cook Book - for the Hostess of Tomorrow) and making trying to make her list.... aah the meal planner of tomorrow - what a sweetie :)

what do you love about Jesus?

That is the question that Margaret gave me in chapter three. Her answer - His beauty.

That was not the first answer that came to my mind. Other qualities such as unconditional love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, patience, wisdom.....beauty - here are some of her thoughts about the beauty of Jesus.

"Jesus invites me to come to him, know him, and gaze at his beauty. When I fix my eyes on him, then I can look at things in this world and better recognize which ones bear the fingerprints of the Creator. And I find myself worshiping the Maker of beauty rather than that which has merely been marked by beauty. Maybe that is why the Psalmist cries out. "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple."

Whatever you fix your eyes on will become your standard."

the organic God

God is perfect in His timing (ALWAYS) The book the organic God, by Margaret Feinberg, came to me in an unusual way, my husband bought it for me. He has not bought me a book since we were dating (I was 21) and he gave me my first leather addition of "My Utmost for His Highest" which is very dear to me. He bought this book on a "whim", having heard of this lady only by a friend wanting him to look at her web site for a design idea. Well, he ordered the book after being on her site.

I like to be a discerning reader and always look at any recommended quotes on the back by any of my favorites (R.C. Sproul, Swindoll, Bridges, Piper, CJ Mahaney..to name a few) and look for quotes on the back from authors I'm not always in agreement with who I will not name. Anyway, this book had nothing. It was published by Zondervan which also makes it very generic.

The title - Organic - I'm not real fond of this new catch word as it is everywhere and I'm not sure what I can know is truly organic and if I want to pay more for it. Organic - relating to my God? Just because it is a catch phrase right now? That kinda bugged me.

As I finished the first few chapters and began to get to know the author through her "realness" I also found her reasoning behind the term Organic God and I knew it was what I needed.

"Why describe God as organic? More and more I realize that my own understanding of God is largely polluted. I have preconceived notions, thoughts, and biases when it comes to God. I have a tendency to favor certain portions of scripture over others. I have a bad habit of reading some stories with a been-there-done-that attitude, knowing the end of the story before it begins, and in the process of denying God's ability to speak to me through it once again. .... The result is that my understanding and perception of God is clouded, much like the dingy haze of pollution that hangs over most major cities."

Over the next few days I want to write quotes from this book that have touched me. The really cool thing about this book too, that I have never seen before - it has soundtrack recommendations in the back! The author suggests certain songs to listen to while reading that chapter as "music awakens the heart" I love it! And as an extra, extra bonus - the music is from artists that I already love and (I'm not kidding) 8 out of the 10 songs I already have on my i pod! See, God knows me and His timing is perfect.

Oswald Chambers

Abandoned to God, The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest, by David McCasland

I finished this book a few months ago. Oswald Chambers was an artist, history buff, poet, missionary, pastor, teacher and a man of prayer. I loved this book. I felt like I could have written down so many quotes in my notes -thoughts I would want to return to. But here are two, both from the writings of Oswald Chambers.

"We are not called to be successful in accordance with ordinary standards, but in accordance with a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, becoming in that way what it never could be if it were to abide alone."

"A parenthesis is a sentence inserted into an othewise grammatically complete sentence, and if you want to understand the author, pay particular attention to the parenthesis. God puts a parenthesis in the middle flow of our life, the life goes on before and after, but if you want to understand the life, read the parenthesis, if you can."

Andrew Jackson

I just finished a book called "The President's Lady" by Irving Stone. I enjoyed this historical/biographical novel so much. Andrew Jackson was an intersting man - full of excellent character. The kind of character that is hard to see in any American leader today. One thing I learned from him was how focused he was on his mission and how he never cared about what other people thought of him. A few of his accompishments include: negotiated countless treaties with Indians, fought heroically in the Revolutionary War, became an attorney general in Tennessee, Supreme Court Justice, leader in the fight for our freedom during the War of 1812 (he had been fighting for years to organize a military, knowing the British were not going to let us really be free) he was a master at military science and fought for Florida (governed by Spain until after the War of 1812). He loved his wife, adopted several children whose fathers died in battle and lost his wife the week he was elected President of the United States.

His wife Rachel Jackson was rediculed for years and yet still served her neighbors on horseback giving them anything the needed...food and clothing and help with child birth, illnesses and fevers. She was a wonderful hostess - serving royalty in her humble homes as well as worked the land for years and managed the staff while Andrew was serving our country.

side note - the cottage picture on the header of this blog is the chapel on Andrew Jackson's property "The Hermitage" and was taken by Brian while we were on our tour.