I glanced up from a phone call this afternoon to notice my dry goods were being a little rude. Sugar and spice and everything nice? Hmph.

Livia has a new stuffed animal which she named Hammy (so as not to be confused with Blue Bear, yet another blue-toned Care Bear in her possession). Summoned from lunch prep yesterday by Jeremy telling me to bring a camera, I found my family + Hammy cuddled tight on the couch.

“Smile, Hammy,” Liv directed.

He did, and I snapped the picture.

*Like Jeannette, I just couldn’t resist.

* Blueprint Magazine. While I am snobbish in attempting to avoid trendy items (see how the snobbery actually backfires here?), and while I tend to dislike Martha Stewart the Woman and therefore would rather not passionately adore her products, I find myself enamored by this magazine. They had me at hello.

* McDonald’s Iced Coffee. I reserve this drink for special moments, specifically times when I am blissfully alone in the car, driving around town in silence. It is my special treat to be savored slowly.

* New-to-me websites where I can continue to surf links to my heart’s content.

* The sheer act of writing. Stephen King wrote something in his book,On Writing, about how, if someone loves to write, why on earth would they do anything else? I planned on submitting an article for publication by the end of Summer 2006 but my plans were waylaid a bit and I found myself in the cold months of 2007, wondering if there was a way for me to make some cashola from home. God provided, good people contacted me, and now I am working from the Prairie Box as a freelance writer. Really, it’s a dream come true. Words bounce around my mind, throwing themselves into unusual phrases and sometimes full sentences and paragraphs, throughout the day. Sometimes they make it to the light of day, or rather the innards of some Word file, but most of the time they play in my head and remind me of how much I love to write. Before I go setting myself up for massive failure in the minds of blog readers, let me tell you about the head of our statewide arboretum whose wife thinks they could do much more with their home garden, or the web developer who hasn’t updated his family’s website in a few years. Catch my drift? My writing here tends to be quick, breezy and sometimes non-existent. So don’t hold your breath for second, third or fourth draft quality. Ain’t gonna happen. Nonetheless, I am thrilled to be writing for pay — and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with the gifts God has apportioned me.

“Time’s up?” she asks from her perch on the little potty.

“Hmm. Yeah,” I absentmindedly say while, like usual, doing something else.

“No. Time’s down.” And she plops her tushy back onto the plastic seat.

She has my attention. “Time’s down?”

“Yes, Time’s down! I’m not done yet.”

Alrighty then.

Come on, Nebraskans, and vote in a reading campaign that could result in 50,000 brand spankin’ new books for kids in our state!

Check out What Book Got You Hooked? and leave a brief comment in order to vote. You can vote once each day until July 31st, so go do it. We can’t let the Sooner State beat us!

True joy and freedom comes in relinquishing our definition of comfort. To take risks and give up fear…to look outside of ourselves toward God so we can love others. To allow God to be big and Jesus to be sufficient.

**Thanks to Christina for sharing her thoughts and experiences from Peru.

I feel like I grow the most, in a spiritual sense, when I go through difficult times. Right now I’m being challenged by sermons, passages of scripture (Hebrews 11), things friends and mentors are saying, and words full of meaning on blogs. The challenge is to find joy and peace in the midst of unfulfilled desire, to trust that God will keep his promises to me even when I can’t actually see what he’s doing. I can’t stand it when people are vague on their blogs about struggles (though sometimes I’ll admit it’s a necessary precaution), so I’ll just throw this out there… I really want to have more children and so far the Lord hasn’t given us another bitty Tredway. I want to not despair about this, but to trust God in his infinite wisdom to provide us with a baby, adopted or bio, it doesn’t matter.

To use the wise words of a friend, what I really want is “to allow God to be big and Jesus to be sufficient.” Amen, sister.

Click on the pictures above for more images of the Zion Church Picnic and time capsule opening yesterday. The Journal Star also has an article covering the event.