Poems and Ponderings

Heaven

I’ve set my thoughts on higher things
for soon I’ll leave this earth behind;
the Lord shall take my rotting flesh
and give to me a sinless mind.

Oh, boundless joy- no lustful snares
to hinder me upon my way.
No darkness or night I will fear
for where my Lord dwells is my day.

What makes my blessed heart to sing
and burst with gladness from the core
I will be with God the King
my Savior, Friend forevermore.

*Written by Madeleine*

2009

Home School Physical Education

Every morning exuberance fills my heart when I see the bundle of assorted dumbbells that wait expectantly on our craft table in the studio. Mama and I are going to exercise with my four little sisters. I hear gleeful sounds emitting from our hallway and the door crashes open. Catching looks of eagerness from each girl as she lines up along the rose covered carpet, I laugh. They make desperate attempts to establish each other’s exclusive corner. Baby Katie looks on knowingly from her swing. I take my place in front of the television as dumbbells are collected and clasped in readiness. Mama reaches for the control and the screen lights up in aerobic movements. Bella and Lizzie have the daily debate deciding who is going to be which exerciser, the wondrous Jodi is always chosen first. Three bodies sway in front of me, brimming with energy. I can barely lift a leg without tangling with a pint-sized person. Arms lift with funny little jerks, they are keeping up today. Katie’s swing keeps time to the beat. Wiggy* pauses to return a host of toys to baby’s tray. Bend and straighten, kick and lift then walk again. Bella places her hand in mine, rambling up and back in the row of roses that has been named ours. Soon all five of us are sailing over the floor together, screaming in merriment. Wiggy drops her weights the standard two-hundred times. I wonder why Mama and I are sweating more than the girls. We tread on, until- at last, we finish! I now have a new and improved definition for aerobics class. Oh, the joys of home school physical education!

* Nickname for Louisa

"She always made home happy,"
- epitaph in a churchyard, inscribed by a husband after sixty years of wedded life

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.
Proverbs 18:22

Definition of Home

"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness, and without any dread of ridicule."

-F.W. Robertson

"And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."
Ephensians 4:32

Paper Doll Give-Away!!!!!!

Please go over to Jasmine's blog, Joyfully at Home, for info on a Noble Rose Press give-away!! The site is beauitful, appealing and feminine and the dolls themselves look so sweet....I love paperdolls.

Poems and Ponderings

Quiet, Quiet Falls the Snow

Quiet, quiet falls the snow
as footfalls of a woodland doe.
Flying doves of winter breed
follow frost’s impromptu lead.

Joining fellow comrades’ rest
deep within my fair forest.
Lacing trees; eternal chains,
snow along our slushy lanes.

Glowing diamonds, eiderdown
blanketing the frozen ground
Rolling up my tired threshold
fleecy ice waves; quick and bold.

Cold, gray sky as in early dawn,
disappearance of brown lawn.
White of whitest, clear but deep
shifting past my warm retreat.

Piling high the garden fence
in rows of linen, piling since
something in me constant drew
to behold the changing view.

An ashen swarm lands the trees
as a clump of summer bees
divide the pollen in the flowers;
flurries make us icy bowers.

Sudden drops as whitened leaves
when in Autumn blows the breeze;
fall to ground to muted breathe,
while above the winds do seethe.

Resting, waiting, flitting, falling,
drifting, sparkling, raining, stalling
Quiet, quiet how it snows,
watching how the Winter goes.

Beauty made from God’s own hands
shaping, forming icy strands,
Thankfulness is snowing on
my mind as I am snowed upon.

*Written by Madeleine*
2/11/2010

"Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts and practice them in you lives. To the influence of this book we are indepted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future. Rightiousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people."
~Ulysses S. Grant

"Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally impossible for us to figure what life would be if those teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves."
~Theodore Roosevelt


"The Bible is worth all the other books which have ever really been printed."
~Patrick Henry

"So great is my veneration of the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society."
~John Adams

Let it Snow..... Texas Style!

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar,and the fulness thereof.
Let the fields be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.
Psalms 96: 11,12

Yesterday it snowed about eight inches at our house. A record unusual for Texas winters !! :) Everything looked like a "fairyland!"


Jonathan made the littlest snowman and left him on our front porch while he went to go feed the animals. The girls were on cloud nine when they beheld the masterpiece....

Introducing.... Tiny ( a small name for a small customer )

Dicken meets world's smallest snowman.

"Black cat, black cat what do you see?"

"I see a triple, scooped ice cream!"










In the evening Dad, Jonathan and I made a snowman that was taller than all of us, it took us about forty five minutes. His name, Lizzie dubbed him, John the Jolly Giant.

The Influence of Music!

We're evaluating our music, realizing the importance of how it effects our spirits.

Any suggestions for uplifting, encouraging music would be welcomed. Specific groups or families would be great.
We love classical, Celtic, instrumental and hymns!!!

Don't forget to pause my playlist.

Please forgive the distortion, Baby Katie's head is really not that big!!!!

My family did a test about the influence of music on people, even babies!

Poems and Ponderings

Nothing is Mine

I am a nothing, a nobody;
I must forget my indefinite self,
and plead my heart for Him
so I am one with Christ and His will.
For without His Spirit, no personality
or concept will be mine.

I must come to realize that mine
and me are one in the same body;
a monotone mess of personality.
The same as every other self
that has a working, grasping will;
dark and void of Him.

But if He takes me unto Him
and makes His wishes mine;
I will find that my stubborn will
does come in accord with His body.
Christ will triumph over self,
and change my twisted personality;

to a harmonious personality.
With the righteousness that is in Him,
and will shroud my sin and self;
away that His purity might be mine.
Owing all that I am to Christ’s body;
hung on a tree by my shameless will.

So I have lost my will,
but I have found Christ’s personality,
and am entitled to shun my body
with its entices and desires, for only Him.
So the originality that is held as mine;
must be credited to the Holy God, not self.

I must learn and ascertain that myself
is a lost cause; a defaming will.
That causes what is me and mine
to look an indistinct personality.
For who is special, but Him;
and unique- The believers in body.
For He directs my body, heart and will;
Him and Him alone has given myself
a personality I cannot claim as mine.

*Written by Madeleine*