Tie Tying Lesson

My brother-in-law gave us a bag of ties.  Some of them were a little small for Scott and those he picked out to give to Joshua.   Now that Joshua has a set of "real" ties, that means that someone has to tie them.  The time had come for Joshua to learn how to tie his new ties.

Sunday afternoon the lessons commenced.  Of course, Joshua isn't the only one that benefited from this lesson.  Scott got out ties for each of the older four children to try tying. 

 The first try wasn't necessarily the prettiest job, but these are the pictures I took of each of them with their ties.   I thought they did pretty good.  Joshua kept on practicing and was finally starting to get a handle on the length. 

 Jonathan, I just thought was too cute.  He tied his tie himself.  Scott showed them all step by step and well, this was Jonathan's final result.  I think he did pretty good with his modifications.  :) 

 Now you may wonder why a girl would need to learn to tie a tie.  I told them that it might come in handy for them to one day.  They may decide to get married and have a dream that they have to tie their husbands tie before church. 

Yes, that happened to me once.  I learned to tie a tie from my Dad a long time ago.  One day after I was married to Scott we were driving to a preaching appointment and I fell asleep in the car.  Scott usually waited until he got to the church before tying his tie but for some reason I had a dream that we were late and he needed his tie tied.  I immediately woke up and started tying his tie.  He thought it was rather strange but he was sweet and wore it anyway.  Even though I didn't tie it quite as pretty as he would have. 

 Hannah never did tie one.  I think she was determined that it was too hard.  And I guess at almost 6, I would have thought it too hard as well.  So Scott tied one for her but the whole point of tying a tie in her mind is so that you can pull it apart.  So I didn't get a picture of her with her tie. 

Instead I thought I would put this picture of Hannah and Ruth matching.  They asked me to take this picture of them.  They both had a pink shirt and blue skirt and red shoes.  They love to dress alike when they get a chance.









And I don't want to leave Elijah out so I wanted to show this picture of Elijah riding behind Jonathan on a bull dozer toy at our church.  He is growing up fast. He now has 6 teeth and knows how to use them. 

The challenge I am now having with Elijah is weaning.  Scott was fixing sandwiches in the car after karate class the other day and Elijah stopped nursing and wanted the sandwich.  I take that as a sign that we're on the right track.

I never did get a video of Hannah and Jonathan singing.  Maybe I'll be able to catch a really cute video soon.  Hope you don't mind these pictures instead.  :)

Tea Party

Ruth and Hannah had a friend over for a tea party last Saturday.  I pulled out our fancy tea set and baked a strawberry cake.  The girls chose Blueberry tea.  I also made some pudding for the party.

While Jonathan and I prepared the tea and cake in the kitchen the girls painted their fingernails.  Then they watched a Princess movie. 

After the movie was over we gathered around the table and had tea.  This was Amelia's first tea party.  We have had tea parties before but this was our first time to entertain a guest for tea. 


We discussed the fact that the girls were princesses. And I mentioned that Jonathan could be a Prince.  He exclaimed, "No! I'm a boy!"

I tried to explain that a princess was a girl and that a prince was a boy.  He was still emphatically declaring himself just a boy.  So I told the girls, "Okay, y'all can be princesses and we'll let Jonathan be just a boy for our tea party."

The the evening ended with a grand ball.  The girls and Jonathan went into the hallway and entered into the livingroom with their names announced. 

Then they sat in chairs and then got up and danced to Baroque music. 

They danced all the way to the time Amelia's parents came to pick her up and drop off Joshua who was visiting with Amelia's brother.

Over all they had a wonderful time. 

We'll need to do that again sometime.

Saturday morning, Joshua and Ruth earned their orange belts and Hannah has earned her yellow belt in karate class.

Scott and I will be testing in two months.  I enjoy participating in karate as a family.  It's really neat to help each other reach our goals.

This coming Saturday will be the belt ceremony when the kids will actually receive their belts.  I'll try to post pictures of that when the time comes.

Tuesday, we enjoyed karate class and ordered the kids sparring gear.  They have now reached a level where they are able to spar.

Wednesday, we had our Wednesday night Bible Study at our house.  I baked a loaf of raisin bread in our bread machine and we pulled out our tea set again.  This time we had Mixed Berry Zinger tea. 

Elijah hasn't been feeling very well. I'm pretty sure it's because of his teeth again. He now has 6 teeth and working on his 7th tooth. He's been real drooly and running a slight fever. It's never fun when their teething. He wanted to be held all day yesterday. He seems to be feeling a little bit better now.


It's nice when you get a break between teething spells.  Elijah has sure been growing quick. 

Jonathan and Hannah have been working on a special for Sunday this week.  I tried to get a video of them but Jonathan quit singing as soon as I got the camera.  We'll be practicing it again tomorrow and maybe I'll have my camera out and ready a lot sooner.  He was really getting into the song he was singing.  He even had his eyes squinting like he was really concentrating on the song.    

That catches me up for this week.  We enjoyed visiting my parents last week, while Scott was at a Tech Conference.  It is nice to be home again though and back into a routine.  Hopefully I'll be able to post a video of them singing in my next blog.  If not I'll pull out one of my other cute random videos of the kids.  :) 

Mema and Daddy Jim: A Legacy of Commitment

I have learned so many lessons over the years and the one thing that I have truly learned from my grandparents is that " 'til death do us part" is a standing commitment.

My Grandfather came home on furlough 64 years ago and asked if there were any girls left and I am so thankful that his friends mentioned my grandmother, Charlcye Taylor.   

After they were married, my grandfather started going to church with my grandmother and gave his life to Christ soon accepting the call to the ministry.   My grandmother followed him with their three daughters to whatever church the Lord called them to.  She stayed with him and loved him "for richer or poorer..."

 I know they must have had some pretty hard times.  Who doesn't have the difficult days to go through.  I'm sure they even had rocky moments, what marriage doesn't?  But they stayed together through "good times and bad..."

They were committed in their marriage.  Then my grandmother had health problems.  She had to retire from her job at Texas Baptist Institute.  Then after a time of being in and out of the hospital she was able to be home to care for Daddy Jim, who also began having major health problems.  They were committed to each other "in sickness and in health."  

Have you noticed that they are still holding hands in these pictures?  Even when Daddy Jim was in the hospital bed they are still together.  Mema would stay with him in the hospital.  I know it wasn't comfortable for her to be there but she wanted to be there.  That's true commitment.

Then came the day, a little over a week ago, that Daddy Jim went home to be with the Lord.  And they kept their commitment for "as long as we both shall live."

This last picture is Mema and Daddy Jim's hands held over an open Bible.  Just like you would see in a wedding picture. 

I actually requested this picture to be taken a few years ago.  Because as a writer, I wanted a perfect illustration of marriage and how it's suppose to be. 

This is how marriage should look.  I love my Mema and Daddy Jim.  Thanks for the legacy of commitment.