A 30-year Late Thank You

Dear Daddy…

Today Andrew and I created a 3-dimensional animal cell… I'm pretty sure I had more fun than he did, but he gave me a lot of thank yous, smiles, and high fives when we were done :-)

While helping him with the project, I couldn't help but think back to my difficulties in biology and botany with Mr Piper and the time you would spend with me learning everything for tests.

I know this is a little late (30-years, to be exact), but thank you for ALL of your help!!!







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Up North On My Mind

It's been two months since we've been home from Wisconsin and I still have it on my mind...

I can't remember having such a deep longing to return so quickly after coming home from our family vacation to Wisconsin. I was anxious to get up there, and I didn't want to leave...

It'll be a couple of years before we make it back up again... Hopefully I'll have the same excitement as I had this year.

The image below pretty much sums up what I picture in my mind when I think of our annual Sexton family vacation:

Yes... Up North is on my mind.

You're Blessed When...

{I don't think I've ever seen The Beatitudes written more beautifully than in The Message version of the Bible.}

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care–full, ’ you find yourselves cared for.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

~Matthew 5:3-10 (The Message)

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Strouthion and Strouthion

Stella is a cockatiel that we adopted last winter… I have to say we've become quite close over the past few months. and this morning was a perfect chance to sit on our front porch with her during my Saturday "porch time." (Her wings are clipped, so no chance of her flying away.)



When Laurie and I first moved into our house, we had five birds living with us…

• white-eyed conure
•2 cockatiels
•mourning dove (rescued several years earlier by Laurie's brother), and
•budgie

About this same time I began bird watching… I developed such a love for our feathered friends.

After our son Andrew was born, things in our house got a little crazy… we fostered an African gray for a little while until a friend adopted him, work became busier for Laurie and I, life got busier… our white-eyed conure died suddenly (which affected me more than I would admit at the time), our budgie died, Savannah was born, job change… soon we asked Laurie's brother if he could take our two cockatiels and mourning dove.

That was hard going from a house full of birds to no birds. But, we knew at that time in our lives, it was necessary. However, we still had one "little birdie" in our house… our son Andrew, his nickname at a very early age.

It was about that time that I started using the name "Strouthion" for different things online…

strouthion: a sparrow
Original Word: στρουθίον, ου, τό
Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter
Transliteration: strouthion
Phonetic Spelling: (stroo-thee'-on)
Short Definition: a small bird, sparrow
Definition: a small bird, sparrow.

We knew there would be a time when birds would come back into our lives. It started with a canary, Buttercup, when Andrew was in first grade.

And now, a few pets later, Stella joined our flock :-)

So for me it was a special time with Stella on our front porch this morning… Strouthion and strouthion.

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Reading Frenzy

Our 10-year old daughter, Savannah, has become quite the reader… it seems we almost always see her with a book in her hands.

When I was Savannah's age, I can't really remember ever having a joy for reading. So it's quite exciting to see it in BOTH of our kids :-)

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