With Dad (my father-in-law) in Uganda for several weeks on mission work, hearing from him is always especially nice because it makes him not feel soooo far away. I got tickled and truly jealous over him sending me this particular email (below) that he titled, "Tammy Supper" and just enjoyed his thinking of me. My father in law knows me well enough to know that a big avocado cut up for supper would do me JUST FINE! I LOVE avocados! In fact, everyone in my family likes them. I wish we could afford to have them on hand EVERY single day so I could eat one EVERY day, I love them so much! I've doctored them up with lemon or lime and a dash of salt, or even just sprinkled a little Chipotle sauce on them when I'm in the mood for something with a little kick. I love mincing fresh garlic on them as well and of course guacamole is a favorite. Either way, I love them just the way they are as well. Natalie often asks for lemon and cummin sprinkled all over hers. Yum! I've always loved feeding them to my babies because of them being a fresh food that has wholesome fat that is so good for them. So, yes the diaper bag has often had an avocado or two in it!! With them being a dollar or more a piece most of the time, we only eat them a couple times a week.... But fresh off the tree is a whole other thing!!! How wonderful would that be?!?! Oh my goodness. It's so frustrating to me when I buy avocados and cut into them and find that they are stringy or bad inside. It's so funny to think about the joy I have every time I cut into one and find it's perfect! Every time I think, "Yay!" When Jonathan and I went to vacation for a week in the Dominican Republic I was sooo INTO all the fresh fruit. I literally felt like I was in Heaven there (Oh man, and just to think what Heaven is really going to be like!!) It was AMAZING. It all seemed to taste so much better. I think a lot of it had to do with it being local produce and very fresh. They told us that the bananas, pineapples, melons and all kinds of other fruits were just recently picked. I think many of the bananas in our super markets are gassed to keep them from ripening until they can get into consumer's hands in all the many places they're shipped to. Who knows when the avocados I buy in Publix or Sam's are picked off the tree. If I had my wish, I would live on some land that had a good many fruit trees and blueberry bushes and enjoy "living off the land". If avocados grew well in northern Florida we would have one already, but they do not. It gets too cold here for them. I do still dream of having several blueberry bushes, a lemon tree and maybe an orange tree of our own and hope to make that happen sometime in our future even if it means saying goodbye to my azalea hedge in the back. Anyway, here's the short emails between me and Dad yesterday.  His thinking of me makes me smile. But thinking of him and the work he is doing for our Lord makes me smile more.

_______________________________________________________________________________

From: Bob (my father-in-law)
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 11:54 PM
To: Tammy; Jonathan
Subject: Tammy Supper

I sat under the tree from which this was picked for supper

___________________________________________________________________________________________

From: Tammy
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 9:05 AM
To: Bob
Subject: RE: Tammy Supper

I'm SOOO jealous!!!!! I looked at Jonathan and said, "you sure we aren't called to be missionaries in Uganda?"
I mean we know I can live without a kitchen. I love to camp and I KNOW I could survive HAPPILY eating off trees there! :)

Love you Dad!

Tammy

___________________________________________________________________________________________

From: Bob

Sent: Sunday, May 10,2009 4:15 PM

To: Tammy

Subject: Re: Tammy Supper

Your reply made my day.

Hug the kids for me.

Love, Dad

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 
In October of last year, at 6 years old Natalie finally learned how to ride without training wheels on her "small" bike. With her growing like a weed and my brother and his children moving here late last year, we passed her small bike to her cousin Indi to enjoy. Natalie became quite fearful and pretty much lost all confidence upon moving up to a larger bike (even though it was the right size for her). We didn't see this coming. It became especially apparent to us on Christmas day when all her cousins got bikes for Christmas. We had taken the kid's bikes over to Jonathan's parents house that day so we could all go on a walk/bike ride with our family when we were met with an overwhelmed, frightened little girl who was REALLY upset and just wished she could have training wheels again. The fact that her brother and all her cousins were riding around with training wheels didn't help our drama queen on that day either..... but fast forward through four months of wishing she had her smaller bike back, occasionally riding Joseph's bike, being a speed demon on our rugged little tykes tricycle, requesting her small bike back, riding IT again without training wheels, though finding it was too small for her long legs.... to her suddenly (last night) getting on her big bike and riding it like a pro. She was especially excited and exclaimed, "now I can take Lovey (her pet deer) on bike rides," as her big bike has for these past 4 months sported the bike basket we gifted her with at Christmas. We are very excited for her and her regained confidence! No longer is she letting the "bigger" bike intimidate her like she has for so long. In these last couple years I've spent a lot of time relaxing on the front steps of our house while watching the kids ride bikes and it is most definitely a favorite past time of mine. I think it's time to reminisce and go find some pictures of a younger Natalie on her little bike to add to this post!

Natalie was on the front steps counting. Heading out to hide, Joseph ran off in the opposite direction than his mommy and lil' sister. Claire and I tucked ourselves behind the hedge of bushes on the left side of our house (we have hedges everywhere!) and apparently did a good job of hiding because it took Natalie forever to find us. She found Joseph and then they both went on the lengthy search for us. Finally, Joseph says to Natalie that we must have went inside the house to hide. That's when I did a "yoo-hoo" to clue them in on  where we were. Natalie screams, "Give us a hint." I remained silent as Claire began to sing softly. "Shhh," I told her as I gave her a smile and touched her lil lips." I gave another "yoo-hoo" and suddenly they were on the right side of the house. Claire and I remained quiet (Claire did great - she's gotten the hang of hide-n-seek by now, I think.)  Suddenly we saw Joseph run by (with our handy lil' camera in my pocket - I pulled it out to see if I could catch him in a pic to show them once they found us how close they were). He passed right by us heading into the back yard. Natalie was right beside him. They took some time looking everywhere in the  backyard (where there are lots of places to hide).  Meanwhile, Claire and I were  enjoying  our time  hanging out tucked behind/in the boxwood bushes  anyway. It was great because we could see out, but they couldn't really see us. After awhile,  Natalie was running  back to the front yard and while almost passing us by  again caught a glimpse of us and backtracked. She  giggled and shouted with excitement to Joseph. I got up. Claire stayed tucked away for a couple more minutes. We looked through the bushes and saw her and were laughing because it was like she didn't want to come out and be "found". I was able to get a picture before Natalie got back there, swooped her up and carried her out.
             
 

What a whirlwind the last two weeks have been.... A whirlwind full of emotional highs and lows.  We took great joy in a wonderful worshipful week of rejoicing leading up to the celebrating of our Lord's resurrection and then soon after plunged down into the depths of sorrow as we mourned with dear family over my Aunt Jakki dying in a boating accident on Easter Sunday. Upon returning from being in Jacksonville this past weekend,  I immediately began to gear myself and the kids up with a joyful optimism at the possibility of their daddy winning the race for city commissioner that he's worked so hard on. With excitement over the election being so close and a heart to help Jonathan, the kids and I spent time waving signs and knocking on some doors.... to later have our emotions slide down upon finding he lost by ONLY TWO  VOTES (that's how close it was!!) and knowing at least 10 people right around us that said they'd vote for him but just didn't make it to vote (though voter turnout in general was very poor). It also isn't official yet as there was a manual recount scheduled for tomorrow morning in which 5 unaccounted ballots will be considered. Either way, as we wait for final closure on that, I can say that my perspective of our life and purpose here has once again been refreshed and refocused by the Lord through these recent (major and minor) emotional roller coasters... and that sort of refocusing is always a blessing.

   Last Wednesday while Natalie and Joseph were taken to their (every other week) catechism club, I was at home having my usual "Claire bear and mommy time". We walked around outside for a bit admiring God's handiwork around our yard. Upon seeing some wilting and withering, I realized that soon our flowers in the front would be gone, so I ran inside to get the camera to snap a couple pictures of them with several still in their glory. I particularly loved how they looked like they could almost swallow up Claire's little head as she stood close by. 

These flowers that were so alive and vibrant are now gone... and my Aunt Jakki, who was so alive and vibrant (a very healthy fitness trainer and marathon runner at the age of 44) is now gone. I praise God for the time he gave us to enjoy those flowers and I praise God for the time He gave us to enjoy my Aunt Jakki (though I wish there was more time), but more importantly I had opportunity to personally share my faith in Jesus Christ with her and did not do it. I'm glad God is sovereign over all things, including my failures and lack of caring. Being reminded how relatively short this life is and how we never know how or when we or anyone will meet death's door, I feel a new boldness for sharing what Jesus has done for me with others. Even Natalie and Joseph came home talking more about needing to know Jesus. They did after all see with their own eyes how very real death is. While at the viewing Joseph actually asked several times if he could go look at my aunt again. I'm still not sure why he did that.

The kids and I once again talked about how death's timing is unpredictable and how living a "good" life won't get you into heaven.... Going over Romans chapter 10 -  "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." and as Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ." I praise God that Natalie and Joseph profess belief in Jesus as their Lord at their young ages and pray that what they now understand with childlike faith will take deep root in their hearts. As Jonathan's father always prays, "May they never know a day that they're not aware of their sin and how they need a savior and that that savior is Jesus Christ." Oh, how lovely is God and his covenants? To think that our children may actually grow up and not be able to remember a day that they didn't know Jesus because of being taught of their sin and their need for Jesus from infancy and God taking hold of their young hearts. That is this mother's prayer.

Speaking of hearts... Upon arriving at the private family viewing, I felt like my heart got ripped out of my chest the moment I saw my cousin, Tiffany (17 yrs old and just lost her mom) through the crack of the door. I couldn't control the tears as I held her in my arms. While being utterly filled with sorrow in that place with my family, I felt my life's purpose brought before me once again as I was reminded how knowing and serving Jesus and loving others as He would have me to is the only thing that really matters. We quietly mingled, hugged loved ones and watched the lovely slide show that had been put together to give a glimpse of my Aunt Jakki's life. I know I left wanting to serve God better, love more, and wanting to make sure to occupy my time with that which really matters and so I'll end this with words that really do matter and spur me on.

1 Peter 1:13-25

 ¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. ¹⁴As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

 ¹⁷Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. ¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

 ²²Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴For, 
   
"All men are like grass,
      and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
   the grass withers and the flowers fall,
    ²⁵but the word of the Lord stands forever."

I took this picture from this angle just before running to catch up with Claire who you can barely
 see in this picture. Instead of staying by my side, she was being quite the little explorer that evening.
On another note - I'm looking forward to the our hydrangea bushes blooming in the front bed.